i:^  a  Q^  o^  .^c^  i^'^^ 

OF    THK 

PRINCETON,   N.  J. 


x>  o  >r  ^'\.  •!•  X  o  rw     av 

SAMUEL    AGNEW, 

Of     PHILADELPHIA,     PA. 


Q4^o 


P77/^i/i/cyk/  Mri^i/§^<^ 


''5<^~~>3ef 


BX  4805  .G54  1836 
Gilly,  William  Stephe; 

-1855. 
Our  protestant  forefathers, 


' 


in,  1789 


/J  ., 


^% '\ 


It 


OUR 


PROTESTANT    FOREFATHERS. 


Br 


WILLIAM  STEPHEN  GILLY,  D.D. 
prei;endar.y  of  durham, 

AUTHOR    OF    "VVALDENSIAN    RESEARCHES,"    ETC.,    EVCi 


FlilST  AMERfCAN, 

FROM    THE 
TWELFTH  LONDON  EDITION. 


NEW- YORK  : 
ROBERT  CARTER,  112  C  A  N  A  L  -  ST  R  E  ET. 

J.   W  BELL,  PRIXTER,   17  AKN-STREET. 


MDCUCXXXVI, 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


SECTION 

PAGE 

I.  The  difference  between  Romanism  and  Protestant- 

ism stated 5 

II.  The  Solemn  National  Protests  of  the  Sixteenth 

Century  were  the  Crisis,  not  the  beginning  of 
the  Struggle jq 

III.  The  Abuses  which  hastened  this  Crisis 14 

IV.  The  Holy  Catholic  Church,  before  the  Corruptions 

of  the  Roman  Church  produced  Divisions 17 

V.  The  First  Protestants— Irenasus— The  Waldenses 

— The  Albigenses 20 

VI.  The  Spirit  of  Protestantism  in  Britain  coeval  with 

the  Pope's  pretended  Jurisdiction  here 32 

VII.  Britain  under  Romish  thraldom,  and  Wiclif  the 

Protestant  Liberator 3g 

VIII.  Wiclif's  Translation  of  Scripture  and  his  other 

Writings,  and  the  effects  produced  by  them 47 

IX.  The  Lollards— Lord  Cobham,  and  the  sufferers 

under  the  statute  of  burning  heretics 63 


V  CONTENTS. 

SECTION  PAGE 

X.        Protestantism  gains  ■strength^  before  Luther,  and 

advances  in  spite  of  Henry  VIII 62 

XL  The  jBible  in  the  vernacular  tongue  becomes  an 
engine  of  wonderful  power  in  the  hands  of  the 
Protestants 69 

XII.  Cranmer — The  first  authorized  EngUsh  Version  of 

the  Bible,  and  the  people's  reception  of  it 73 

XIII.  The  Protestant  cause  triumphant  by  virtue  of  its 

own  principles,  rather  than  by  the  aid  of  the 
ruhng  powers 83 

XIV.  Anecdotes  illustrative  of  the  character,  doctrines 

and  conduct  of  our  Protestant  luminaries — 
Wiclif,  Cranmer,  Latimer,;  'Jewel,  Rowland 
Taylor,  and  Bernard  Gilpin 91 


OUR  PROTESTANT  FOREFATHERS. 


Section    1. — The  difference  between  Romanism 
and  Protestantism, 

Christians  in  this  quarter  of  the  world  are 
divided  into  two  parties— the  Roman  Catholics 
and  the  Protestants.  The  Roman  Catholics  con- 
sent to 

The  Authority  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
The  Supremacy  of  the  Pope, 
The  Intercession  of  the  Virgin  and  the  Saints, 
The  Worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
The  Worship  of  Saints, 
The  Use  of  Images, 
The  Veneration  of  Relics, 
The  Power  of  granting  Indulgences, 
The  Doctrine  of  Purgatory,  and 
The  Doctrine  of  Transubstantiation. 
1 


6  OUR  PROTESTANT 

They  believe  also  that  the  authority  of  unwrit- 
ten traditions  and  of  Holy  Writ  are  equal,  and 
that  there  are  seven  sacraments  which  confer 
grace.  The  Protestants  refuse  their  assent  to 
these  things,  heheving  them  to  be  unscriptural ; 
and  they  renounce  all  submission  to  the  assumed 
power  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

That  I  may  represent  the  faith  of  Romanism 
fairly,  I  give  the  following  extracts  from  the 
Creed  of  Pope  Pius  IV.,  in  the  very  words  in 
which  they  were  published  ten  years  ago  in 
defence  of  the  Roman  Catholics  by  Mr.  Butler, 
in  his  "Book  of  the  Roman  Cathohc  Church ;" 
wherein  he  affirms,  "that  this  Creed  is  con- 
sidered, in  every  part  of  the  world,  as  an  accu- 
rate and  explicit  summary  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
hc Faith." 

"  I  most  firmly  admit  and  embrace  apostolical 
and  ecclesiastical  traditions,  and  all  other  con- 
stitutions and  observances  of  the  Church. 

"  I  also  admit  the  Sacred  Scriptures  according 
to  the  sense  which  the  Holy  Mother  Church  has 
held,  and  does  hold,  to  whom  it  belongs  to  judge 
of  the  true  sense  and  interpretation  of  the  Holy 


FOREFATHERS.  7 

Scriptures  ;  nor  will  I  ever  take  or  interpret  them 
otherwise  than  according-  to  the  unanimous  con- 
sent of  the  Fathers. 

"  I  profess  also,  that  there  are  truly  and  pro- 
perly seven  sacraments  of  the  new  law,  insti- 
tuted by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  and  for  the  sal- 
vation of  mankind,  though  all  are  not  necessary 
for  every  one  ;  viz.  baptism,  confirmation,  eucha- 
rist, penance,  extreme  unction,  order,  matrimony; 
and  they  confer  grace ;  and  of  these,  baptism, 
confirmation,  and  order,  cannot  be  reiterated 
without  sacrilege. 

"  I  profesSj  likewise,  that  in  the  mass  is  offered 
to  God  a  true,  proper,  and  propitiatory  sacrifice 
for  the  living  and  the  dead  ;  and  that  in  the 
most  holy  sacrament  of  the  Eucharist  there  is 
truly,  really,  and  substantially,  the  body  and 
blood,  together  with  the  soul  and  divinity  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and  that  there  is  made  a 
conversion  of  the  whole  substance  of  the  bread 
into  the  body,  and  of  the  whole  substance  of  the 
wine  into  the  blood,  which  conversion  the  whole 
Catholic  Church  calls  Transubstantiation. 

*'  I  confess,  also,  that  under  either  kind  alone, 
the  whole  and  entire  Christ,  and  a  true  Sacra- 
ment, is  received. 


8  OUR  PROTESTANT 

"  I  constantly  hold  that  there  is  a  purgatory, 
and  that  the  souls  detained  therein  are  helped  by 
the  suffrages  of  the  faithful.  Likewise,  that  the 
saints  reigning  together  with  Christ  are  to  be 
honoured  and  invocated  ;  that  they  offer  prayers 
to  God  for  us,  and  that  their  relics  are  to  be 
venerated. 

"  I  most  firmly  assert  that  the  images  of  Christ, 
and  of  the  Mother  of  God  ever  Virgin,  and  also 
of  the  other  saints,  are  to  be  had  and  retained  ; 
and  that  due  honour  and  veneration  are  to  be 
given  to  them. 

"  I  also  affirm  that  the  power  of  indulgences 
was  left  by  Christ  in  the  Church,  and  that  the 
use  of  them  is  most  wholesome  to  Christian  peo- 
ple. 

"I  acknowledge  the  Holy,  Catholic,  and 
Apostolical  Roman  Church,  the  mother  and 
mistress  of  all  Churches  ;  and  I  promise  and 
swear  true  obedience  to  the  Roman  Bishop,  the 
successor  of  St.  Peter,  the  Prince  of  the  Apostles, 
and  Vicar  of  Christ. 

"I  also  profess  and  undoubtedly  receive  all 
other  things  delivered,  defined,  and  declared  by 
the  Sacred  Canons  and  General  Councils,  and 


FOREFATHERS.  9 

particularly  by  the  Holy  Council  of  Trent :  and 
likewise  I  also  condemn,  reject,  and  anathema- 
tise all  things  contrary  thereto,  and  all  heresies 
whatsoever  condemned  and  anathematised  by 
the  Church. 

"  This  true  Catholic  Faith,  out  of  which  none 
can  be  saved,  which  I  now  freely  profess  and 
truly  hold,  I  promise,  vow,  and  swear,  most  con- 
stantly to  hold  and  profess  the  s^me  whole  and 
entire,  with  God's  assistance,  to  the  end  of  my 
life." 

Such  is  the  Roman  Catholic's  creed,  in  which 
he  professes  to  maintain  the  power  and  authority 
and  supremacy  of  the  Pope  ;  the  worship  of  the 
Virgin  Mary  and  saints ;  the  use  of  images, 
relics,  indulgences,  and  penances  ;  and  the  doc- 
trine of  purgatory,  of  transubstantiation,  and  of 
seven  sacraments. 

In  opposition  to  these  tenets,  we  assert  that 
the  doctrine  of  the  Pope's  supremacy  and  au- 
thority has  led  to  the  most  unreasonable  assump- 
tion, and  to  the  most  unrighteous  exercise  of 
spiritual  power,  and  to  the  most  terrible  suffer- 
ings that  man  can  inflict  on  man  ; — that  the  in- 
1* 


10  OUR  PROTESTANT 

vocation  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  of  the  saints, 
and  the  use  of  images,  have  introduced  practices 
of  idolatry  which  pious  Roman  Cathohcs  them- 
selves deprecate  ;  that  the  doctrines  of  indul- 
gences, penances,  and  transubstantiation,  have 
been  productive  of  superstitions,  blasphemies, 
and  immoralities,  which  those  who  first  invented 
them  could  not  have  foreseen. 

Section  2. — The  solemn  national  protests  of  the 
sixteenth  century  were  the  Crisis,  not  the  begin- 
ning of  the  struggle. 

Solemn  national  protests  against  the  Roman 
Catholic  Faith,  and  extensive  separations  from 
the  Church  of  Rome,  took  place  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  two  principal  movements,  the  one 
in  Germany,  the  other  in  England,  occurred 
about  the  same  time.  That  in  Germany  is 
dated  from  the  year  1 530,  when  the  confederated 
advocates  of  Martin  Luther's  opinions  signed 
their  confession  of  Faith  at  Augsburgh,  and  en- 
tered into  the  alliance  called  the  Union  of  Smal- 
kald :  that  in  England  is  usually  computed  from 
the  year  1534,  in  which  Henry  VIH.,  was  de- 


FOREFATHERS.  1 1 

clared  supreme  Head  of  the  English  Church  ; 
but  it  might  be  as  properly  assigned  to  the  year 
1535,  when  the  first  complete  English  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible,  the  Magna  Charta  of  our  Pro- 
testantism, the  great  book  of  appeal,  was  publish- 
ed by  Authority. 

Now  because  Luther  took  a  prominent  part  in 
the  religious  discussion  which  preceded  the  stir 
in  Germany,  and  because  Henry  VIII.  was  the 
first  British  king  who  renounced  all  obedience 
to  the  Roman  Bishop,  Protestants  have  been  in- 
sultingly told,  that  their  religion  is  new  and  up- 
start ;  that  there  was  no  Protestant  faith  before 
Martin  Luther ;  and  that  the  Reformation  in 
England  owes  its  birth  to  an  act  of  kingly  caprice, 
and  not  to  the  religious  feelings  of  the  people. 
We  deny  that  Popery  was  always  the  religion 
of  England  before  Henry  VII I. 's  time,  and  the 
only  faith  known  to  our  forefathers  before  the 
sixteenth  century.  Thus  far  only  is  the  asser- 
tion correct,  that  it  was  the  only  faith  which  the 
State  permitted  our  forefathers  to  avow  during 
several  centuries. 

Protestantism,  or  the  principle  of  Resistance, 
opposed  to  the  corruptions  and  usurpations  of  the 


13  OUR  PROTESTANT 

Roman  Church,  is  to  be  found  so  soon  as  that 
Church  began  to  depart  from  the  simplicity  of 
the  Gospel :  it  may  be  traced  through  different 
periods  of  ecclesiastical  history,  until  it  broke 
out  in  those  two  memorable  political  convul- 
sions, which  ought  to  be  called  the  grand  crisis, 
and  not  the  first  struggle  of  the  Protestant  cause. 

The  Romanists  say  that  the  Church  has  al- 
ways taught  the  doctrines  which  we  disclaim ; 
and  we  retort,  that  they  are  innovations,  and 
that  there  have  always  been  Protestants  to  lift 
up  their  voices  against  them.  Humble  servants 
of  Christ,  one  by  one,  declared  against  the  er- 
rors and  domination  of  the  Romish  Pontificate, 
long  before  nations  agreed  to  disown  them. 
Small  communities  asserted  their  independence 
before  large  ones  threw  off  the  Papal  yoke  ;  and 
we  are  to  look  for  the  origin  of  our  religious  sys- 
tem, not  in  the  decrees  of  princes  or  in  acts  of 
parliament,  not  in  political  revolutions  and  pub- 
lic manifestoes — but  in  the  apostolical  writings 
and  institutions,  and  in  the  studies,  and  contem- 
plations, and  firmness  of  individuals. 

The  object  of  this  statement  is  to  draw  atten- 
tion to  the  important  fact,  that  there  was  a  great 


FOREFATHERS.  13 

religions  process  going  on  in  the  minds  of  men 
in  the  private  stations  of  hfe,  many  ages  before 
dominions  and  principahties  entered  on  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Pope's  supremacy,  at  that  epoch 
which  is  called  the  Reformation.  We  will  grant 
that  the  liberation  of  great  part  of  Europe  from 
Papal  usurpations  and  exaction,  after  bearing 
the  yoke  for  many  centuries,  cannot  be  dated 
earlier  than  three  hundred  years  back.  But  we 
strenuously  maintain,  that  a  commotion  had 
been  observed  in  England,  Scotland,  Ireland, 
Germany,  France,  Switzerland,  and  even  in 
parts  of  Italy  and  Spain, — and  that  demands  for 
improvement,  and  a  system  of  opposition  to  the 
abuses  and  corruption  of  the  dominant  Church, 
had  long  previousl}^  indicated  the  existence  of 
that  spirit  which  we  now  call  Protestantism. 
The  good  and  the  wise,  however,  being  gener- 
ally the  fewest  in  number,  the  early  Protestants 
were  silenced  by  imprisonment  and  death,  or  the 
fear  of  them ;  or  were  driven  into  mountains 
and  retired  places,  where,  in  deprivation  and  in 
steadfastness,  they  made  the  deep  valley  and  the 
forest  resound  with  the  praises  of  God. 


\  4  OUR  PROTESTANT 

Section  3. — The  abuses  lohich  hastened  the  Crisis, 

At  length  the  "  rapacity  of  the  Papal  see,  the 
mendacious  impudence  and  the  haiefaced  im- 
postures of  the  friars,  the  growing  immorahty  of 
the  whole  clerical  hody,  and,  above  all,  the  mon- 
strous abuse  of  indulgences,^^*  became  so  intolera- 
ble, that  men  who  had  any  sense  of  religion 
could  bear  with  them  no  longer,  and  the  reli- 
gious revolution  rolled  on  like  a  mighty  flood 
through  all  the  countries  of  the  north  of  Europe. 

The  power  of  granting  indulgences  being  still 
one  cf  the  favourite  and  soul-ensnaring  doctrines 
of  the  Romish  Church,  I  will  digress  for  a  mo- 
ment to  show  what  it  had  to  do,  as  an  immedi- 
ate cause,  with  the  great  Protestant  movement 
at  the  time  when  the  British  and  German  na- 
tions threw  off  the  Papal  chains.  Pope  Leo  X. 
wanted  mone}^,  and  he  "  lost  no  time  in  replen- 
ishing his  empty  coffers  by  the  public  sale  of  in- 

+  Dunham,  'Germanic  Empire,'  vol.  ii.  p.  319.  "Any 
change,"  sa3's  this  erudite  author,  "  would  have  been  better 
than  the  existing  state  of  things.  God's  providence  was  con- 
cerned ;  either  a  reformation  must  be  effected,  or  adieu  to  re- 
ligion." 


FOREFATHERS.  1 5 

dulgences  ;"*  that  is  to  say,  he  made  use  of  the 
power  which  his  predecessors  had  usurped  over 
Christian  churches,  aud  he  sent  abroad  into  all 
kingdoms  his  letters  and  bulls,  promising-  pardon 
of  sins  to  such  as  would  purchase  the  pardon 
with  money.  One  of  the  Pope's  agents  in  this 
nefarious  traffic  was  a  Dominican  friar  of  the 
name  of  Tetzeh  The  Dominican  friars  were 
the  founders  and  great  supporters  of  that  terrible 
tribunal  the  Inquisition,  which  put  to  death  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  victims.  Tetzel  went 
forth  preaching  the  efficacy  of  the  indulgences 
which  he  had  to  sell,  and  boasting  of  the  num- 
ber of  souls  which  had  been  released  from  purga- 
tory, and  saved  from  hell  by  the  purchasers  of 
them.  TheJ'orms  of  the  indulgences  or  pardons 
ran  thus  : — \By  Christ's  authority,  and  that  of 
his  apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  and  of  the  most 
holy  Pope,  granted  and  committed  to  me,  I  do 
absolve  thee  first  from  all  ecclesiastical  censures, 
in  whatever  way  they  have  been  incurred — and 
also  from  all  the  sins,  transgressions,  and  ex- 
cesses, however  enormous  they  maybe,  &c.  &c.'^ 
So  successful  was  Tetzel  in  this  unholy  mer- 

*  Dunham, '  Germanic  Empire,'  vol.  iii.  p.  4. 


16  OUR  PROTESTANT 

diaiidise,  and  so  blinded  had  the  people  been  by 
being  kept  in  the  darkness  of  Popery,  that  his 
receipts  were  enormous ;  but  on  one  occasion  his 
wickedness  produced  its  own  punishment.  "  Can 
you  grant  absokition  for  a  crime  which  a  man 
has  not  yet  committed,  but  intends  to  commit?" 
asked  one  of  his  hearers.  "Yes,"  rephed  Tetzel, 
"  if  the  proper  sum  of  money  be  paid  down." 
The  man  paid  the  amount  required,  and  received 
tlie  form  of  pardon  duly  signed  and  sealed.  Soon 
afterwards  Tetzel  was  robbed,  and  the  robber 
produced  the  indulgence  : — "This,"  said  he,  "is 
the  crime  I  intended  to  commit,  and  here  is  my 
pardon." 

Other  profanations,  vmder  the  name  of  reli- 
gion, went  on :  the  wickedness  which  could 
break  out  into  such  an  atrocious  sin  as  the  sale 
of  indulgences  stopped  at  nothing,  until  even 
the  timid  and  the  indifferent  were  roused  to 
action  by  the  increasing  abominations  of  the 
Romish  Church ;  and  the  Reformation,  which 
had  been  demanded  for  ages,  proceeded  on  an 
enlarged  scale  and  with  increased  acceleration. 

Luther,  who  then  went  forth  in  the  strength 
of  God  to  fight  the  battle  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts, 


FOREFATHERS.  ]7 

was  one  of  the  most  zealous  declaimers  against 
Popery,  and  he  has  for  this  reason  been  errone- 
ously called  the  Father  of  Protestanisni.  But 
had  Luther  never  lived,  the  Prostestant  cause 
would  have  prospered  under  God's  providence, 
and  other  men,  great  as  he  was,  would  have 
been  raised  up  to  vindicate  the  truth.  "Where 
was  Protestantism,  that  new  religion,  before  Lu- 
ther?" we  have  been  insultingly  asked.  The 
reader  who  attentively  peruses  the  following 
pages  will  be  able  to  give  an  answer. 

Section  4. — The  Holy  Catholic  Church,  before 
the  corruptions  of  the  Romish  Church  produced 
divisions. 

For  many  ages  after  the  rehgion  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  first  established,  the  Great  body  of 
Christians  scattered  over  the  whole  world  were 
called  the  Holy  Catholic  Church;  the  word  Cath- 
olic signifying  general  or  universal.  The  Chris- 
tians having  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism, 
were  agreed  also  in  all  the  great  articles  of 
Faith;  and  the  congregations  of  different  coun- 
tries and  kingdoms  worshipped  their  common 
2 


]  8  OUR  PROTESTANT 

Saviour  according  to  forms  which  Avere  so  much 
ahke,  that  though  there  might  be  some  differ 
ences  in  point  of  disciphne,  yet,  as  branches  of 
the  same  stem  make  one  tree,  so  they  made  one 
Church   of    Christ.      They   corresponded  with 
each  other;    they  consuUed  each   other;    they 
helped  each  other  when  they  were  in  poverty 
or  affliction;   and  thus  they  proved  to  the  rest 
of  the  world  that  they  were  brethren,  being  of 
one  mind,  hving  in  peace  together   whenever 
they  met,  and  never  striving  together  except  for 
the  faith  of  the  GospeL     Such  was  their  affec- 
tionate bond  of  union,  to  whatever  nation  they 
belonged;   and  well  might  the  heathen  say  of 
them,  "See  how  they  love  one  another!"     One 
great  reason  why  the  primitive  Christians  con- 
tinued fast  bound  together  in  this  communion  of 
saints   and  fellowship   of   the    Holy    Catliolic 
Church,  was,  that  nobody  of  any  character  for 
piety  or  scriptural  knowledge  ever  attempted  to 
introduce  objects,  doctrines,  or  services,  which 
were  opposed  to  the  written  Word  of  God,  or  to 
the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel:    another  reason 
was,  that  no  particular  congregation  or  branch 
of   Christ's  Universal  Church  endeavoured  to 


FOREFATHERS.  19 

lord  it  over  another,  or  to  assume  the  pre-emi- 
nence. For  very  many  years  there  was  no  such 
thing-  known  in  the  Church  as  image-v/orship 
or  saint-worship,  or  compulsory  confession  to  a 
priest,  or  prohibitions  against  marriage,  or  any 
such  introductions  of  human  invention.  There 
was  nothing  forced  upon  the  will — there  was 
^nothing  to  sear  the  conscience,  or  to  make  a  de- 
vout man  feel,  that,  by  his  conformity  to  the 
Church,  he  was  acting  against  the  revealed 
Word  of  God.  The  Christians  of  those  days 
might  have  had  their  friendly  discussions  on 
religious  points ;  but  there  was  not  any  intole- 
rant, unscriptural,  or  irrational  doctrine  pro- 
pounded in  such  a  manner  as  was  likely  to 
divide  the  Christian  world. 

This  unanimity  continued  as  long  as  those 
wise  precepts  of  the  apostles  were  observed  : — 
"Let  no  man  beguile  you  of  your  reward  in  a 
voluntary  humility  and  worshipping  of  angels, 
which  things  indeed  have  a  show  of  wisdom 
in  will  worship  and  humility,  and  neglecting  of 
the  body."  Col.  ii.  18.  23.  "Feed  the  flock  of 
God  which  is  among  you,  taking  the  oversight 
thereof,  not  by  constraint,  but  willingly  ;  not  for 


20  OUR  PROTESTANT 

filthy  lucre,  but  of  a  ready  mind ;  neither  as  be- 
ing lords  over  God's  heritage,  but  being  ensam- 
ples  to  the  flock."     1  Pet.  v.  2,  3. 

Section.   5. — The  first  Protestants — Irenceus — 
The  Waldenses — The  Albigenses, 

But  when  the  time  came,  as  St.  Paul  prophe- 
sied it  should  come,  "  that  the  man  of  sin  should 
be  revealed,  the  son  of  perdition,  who  opposeth 
and  exalteth  himself  above  all  that  is  called 
God,  or  that  is  worshipped;  whose  coming  is 
after  the  working  of  Satan,  with  all  power,  and 
signs,  and  lying  wonders,  and  with  all  deceiva- 
bleness  of  unrighteousness  ;"  (2  Thess.  ii.  3.  4. 
9.  10.) — when  the  unhappy  time  came  "that 
some  should  depart  from  the  faith,  giving  heed 
to  seducing  spirits  and  doctrines  of  devils,  speak- 
mg  lies  in  hypocrisy,  and  forbidding  to  marry, 
and  commanding  to  abstain  from  meats  which 
God  hath  created  to  be  received  with  thanks- 
giving of  them  which  believe  and  know  the 
truth;"  (1  Tim.  iv.  1 — 3.)  then  the  seamless 
robe  of  Christ  was  torn,  and  the  Church  of 
Rome  apostatized  from  the  religion  taught  by 


FOREFATHERS.  21 

Christ  and  his  apostles.  Image-worship,  and 
worshipping  of  angels  and  saints,  and  forbidding 
to  marry,  and  abstaining  from  meats,  and  lord- 
ing it  over  God's  heritage,  and  the  exalting  of  a 
person  called  the  Pope,  sitting  in  the  temple  as 
God  himself,  and  lying  wonders  and  other  cor- 
ruptions, from  thenceforth  distinguished  the  Ro- 
man or  most  powerful  branch  of  the  Church; 
and  then  humbler  and  less  numerous,  but  more 
pious  congregations,  were  obliged  to  protest 
against  such  errors,  and  afterwards  to  separate 
from  those  who  held  them ;  and  this  was  the 
origin  of  Protestanism. 

'The  first  act  in  ecclesiastical  history  Avhich' 
comes  under  this  name,  was  that  of  Ireneeus,* 
and  of  the  Christians  of  Gaul,  who  lived  between 
the  Rhone  and  the  Alps,  about  the  year  of  our 
Lord  200,  when  they  protested  against  the  tyran- 
ny and  intolerance  of  Victor,  bishop  of  Rome, 
who  endeavoured  to  force  on  them  his  own  opin- 
ions and  practices.  But  though  this  outbreaking 
of  intolerance  began  at  Rome,  so  early  as  about 

*  Irencei  Opera,  p.  340.  Edit.  Paris:  1710.  "Victorem, 
fortiter  et  graviter  iiicrepavit."  See  Disscrtatio  in  libros  Irenaei. 
ibid.  p.  86.    See  also  Euseb.  Hist.  Eccl.  5.  24. 

2* 


22  OUR  PROTESTANT 

the  year  200,  and  was  followed  by  many  doings 
among  the  clergy  of  that  city,  of  which  other 
Christians  could  not  approve,  yet  it  was  a  great 
length  of  time  before  the  usurpations  and  cor- 
ruptions of  the  Romish  Church  became  so  gross, 
as  to  compel  the  faithful  servants  of  Christ  to 
have  no  more  communion  with  her.  All  her 
unscriptural  services  and  practices  were  intro- 
duced by  degrees,  one  after  another ;  first  a 
small  error,  and  then  a  greater:  as,  for  example, 
images  were  first  used  as  memorials,  and  not  as 
objects  of  worship ;  relics  of  dead  saints  were 
collected  and  preserved  with  more  superstition 
than  was  right,  but  it  was  long  before  they  were 
adored.  The  Virgin  Mary,  the  apostles,  and 
saints,  after  their  death,  were  named  with  vene- 
ration, and  their  memory  was  dearly  and  res- 
pectfully cherished,  as  it  ought  to  be  now  ;  but 
it  was  many  ages  before  they  were  prayed  to,  or 
before  they  were  invoked  for  help  and  protec- 
tion. In  like  manner,  the  clergy  were  at  first 
recommended  not  to  marry ;  next,  they  were  for- 
bidden to  marry.  It  was  also  after  the  lapse  of 
centuries  that  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation 
produced  the  sin  of  worshipping  a  consecrated 


FOREFATHERS.  23 

wafer,  and  calling  it  Christ  and  God  ;  and  that 
the  doctrine  of  purgatory  led  to  the  profanation 
of  receiving  money  for  saying  masses  for  the 
dead,  or  the  shameful  traffic  of  selling  indulgen- 
ces.    So  likewise  the  exactions,  and  the  usurpa- 
tions,  and  the  pretended  power  of  the  Romish 
Church,  over  all  other  churches,  were  gradually 
put  forth.     Rome,  heing  the  capital  of  the  world 
and  the  seat  of  empire,  her  bishops  were  visited 
very  often,  and  had  great  respect  paid  them  by 
Christians  of  other  countries.    Having  better  op- 
portunities of  communicating  with  the  pious  and 
the  learned  of  all  nations,  it  was  naturally  sup- 
posed that  their  information  and  counsel  would 
be  more  valuable  than  that  of  other  bishops  and 
clergy  ;  consequently  they  were  more  frequently 
consulted,  and  great  deference  was  paid  to  their 
decisions.     They  took  advantage  of  this,   and 
they  pushed  their  claims  and  their  impositions 
farther  and  farther,  till  their  tyranny  could  be 
endured  by  the  intelligent,  the  bold,  and  the 
pious,  no  longer,  and  Protestantism  spread  from 
one  place  to  another.     "Successors  to  the  Prince 
of  the  Apostles,"  "  Vicars  of  Christ,"  "  Univer- 
sal Bishops,"  "  Gods  on  Earth,"  and  such  Uke 


24  OUR  PROTESTANT 

titles,  which  the  Popes  or  Bishops  of  Rome  have 
arrogated,  were  not  known  during  the  primitive 
ages  of  Christianity,  nor  was  Rome  then  called 
"tlie  Mother  and  Mistress  of  Churches,"  or  pro- 
nounced to  be  "infallible  :"  therefore,  when  she 
insisted  upon  the  power  which  such  titles  infer, 
those  "  who  hold  the  Head,"  who  know  that 
only  "one  is  their  master,  even  Christ,"  deter- 
mined "to  stand  fast  in  the  liberty  wherewith 
Christ  had  made  them  free,  and  not  to  be  en- 
tangled in  the  yoke  of  bondage  ;"  and  tbey  pro- 
tested  against  the  despot  Church,  and  afterwards 
separated  from  her.  The  Romish  church  con- 
tinued, however,  still  to  style  herself  the  "  Catho- 
lic Church,"  when  she  was  no  longer  catholic  or 
universal.  Those  Protestant  Churches  only  can 
be  Catholic,  whicb  maintain  scriptural  doctrines 
and  articles  of  faith  in  which  all  true  Christians 
can  unite. 

Although  there  never  was  a  period  in  which 
God  did  not  raise  up  witnesses  unto  himself, 
who  declared  their  adherence  to  the  uncorrupt- 
ed  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  contended  for  the  faith 
delivered  to  the  saints,  yet  at  times  they  were 
so  few  and  obscure,  compared  with  the  multi- 


FOREFATHERS.  25 

tudes  who  were  deceived,  as  the  word  of  pro- 
phecy foretold,  by  the  power,  and  signs,  and  ly- 
ing wonders,  and  dehisions  of  the  "  man  of  sin," 
that  history  makes  little  mention  of  them  :  and 
no  wonder,  because  the  historians  of  the  day, 
for  several  centuries,  were  themselves  among 
the  numlier  of  those  who  were  ignorant  of  the 
true  faith,  and  who  sided  with  its  enemies. 
But  the  truth  cannot  always  be  concealed  ;  and 
we  learn  from  the  pages  of  an  advocate  of  some 
of  the  errors  of  Rome,  who  lived  at  the  time,* 
that  there  was  a  small  body  of  Protestant  Chris- 
tians, in  our  sense  of  the  term,  dwelling  in  the 
Cottian  Alps,  about  the  year  397.  These  se- 
cluded Christians  had  their  own  bishops  and 
their  own  clergy  in  their  mountain  retreats ; 
they  had  also  their  own  church  services,  free 
from  the  corruptions  which  had  then  crept  into 
the  Romish  Church.  They  had  no  images,  no 
saint-worship,  no  relic-worship,  no  masses  for 
the  souls  of  dead  men  ;  but  they  permitted  their 
clergy  to  marry,  and  they  worshipped  God  ac- 

*  See  the  works  of  Jerome,  '  Adv.  Vigil.'  Epist.  53.  My 
learned  and  indefatigable  friend  Mr.  Faber  first  pointed  out 
this  passage  to  me. 


2Q  OUR  PROTESTANT 

cording  to  scriptural  ordinances.  For  this  they 
were  proscribed  and  calumniated  by  the  Ro- 
manists, and  they  in  their  turn  protested  against 
them.  It  is  very  astonishing,  and  a  certain 
proof  of  God's  protection,  that  tlie  descendants 
of  these  people  live  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  same 
momitains,  and  have  continued  to  worship  the 
God  of  their  fathers  after  tlie  way  which  Pa- 
pists call  heresy,  and  to  protest  against  Rome 
from  that  time  to  this.  They  are  now  called 
Waldenses,  or  Vaiidois,  from  the  mountain  val- 
leys in  wln'ch  they  have  dwelt  so  long,  and  by 
that  name  they  have  been  known  ever  since  the 
year  1 100.  But  by  what  name  tliey  were  call- 
ed between  397  and  1100,  we  cannot  say,  be- 
cause they  were  not  distinctly  noticed  by  chroni- 
clers during  that  long  interval.  Perhaps  tliey 
are  to  be  recognised  as  the  Subalpina,  Subal- 
pines,  or  Pasasgii  of  ancient  geography,  living 
as  tliey  did  at  the  foot  of  the  Alps,  in  the  passes 
between  France  and  Italy.  My  assertions  on 
this  part  of  our  subject  are  supported  by  the  re- 
searches and  opinions  of  that  accurate  historian. 
Sir  James  Mackintosh,  and  of  Mr.  Le  Bas,  tlie 
biographer  of  Wiclif.     "  With  the  dawn  of  his- 


FOREFATHERS.  27 

tory,"  ^ays  the  former,  "  we  discovered  some 
simple  Christians  in  the  valleys  of  the  Alps, 
where  they  still  existvunder  the  ancient  name  of 
Vaiidois,  who,  by  the  light  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, saw  the  extraordinary  contrast  between 
the  purity  of  primitive  times,  and  the  vices  of 
the  gorgeous  and  imperious  hierarchy  which 
surrounded  them."* 

Mr.  Le  Bas  has  gone  more  at  length  into  the 
argument.  "There  seems,"  he  says,  "to  be  a 
strong  presumption  in  favour  of  the  belief  that 
the  people  of  the  vallej^s  of  Piedmont,  known  by 
the  name  of  the  Vaudois  or  Waldenses,  had  pre- 
served from  a  very  early  period  a  far  purer  faith 
than  that  which  was  possessed  by  the  great  body 
of  Christendom.  The  history  of  this  Suhalpine 
Protestantism  is  indeed  enveloped  in  such  deep 
obscurity,  that  any  attempt  to  investigate  it 
would  far  exceed  the  limits  or  the  design  of  the 
present  work.  We  cannot  however  reflect  with- 
out wonder  and  delight  upon  one  precious  docu- 
ment of  unquestionable  authenticity,  which  may 
be  regarded  as  a  confession  of  the  faith  of  these 
people  in  the   twelfth   century.     The  relic  in 

*  '  England,'  by  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  vol.  i.  p.  321. 


28  OUR  PROTESTANT 

question  is  an  ancient  poem  called  '  The  Noble 
Lesson,'  containing  a  metrical  abridgement  of 
the  history  and  doctrine  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  in  the  original  language  of  the 
country,  and  evidently  compiled  for  the  purpose 
of  perpetuating  among  the  people  the  principles 
of  sound  belief.  It  is  beyond  all  doubt  that  the 
essential  doctrines  and  principles  of  our  Refor- 
mation will  be  found  in  this  religious  formulary, 
which  concludes  with  an  exposure  of  the  gross 
errors  of  the  Papacy,  the  simony  of  the  priest- 
hood, masses,  and  prayers  for  the  dead,  the  im- 
postures of  absolution,  and  the  abuses  of  the 
power  of  the  keys.  From  that  time  to  the  pre- 
sent, the  same  opinions  have  been  inflexibly 
maintained  by  these  simple  mountaineers,  who 
have  borne  a  perpetual  and  heroic  testimony  to 
the  faith  of  their  fathers,  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  merciless  and  appalling  persecutions.  The 
extent  and  antiquity  of  the  Waldensian  perver- 
sion is  a  subject  of  perpetual  complaint  with  the 
Papal  authorities  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries ;  and  if  to  this  consideration  we  add 
the  traditions  uniformly  prevalent  among  the 
uncorrupted    shepherds,    their    own    confident 


FOREFATHERS.  29 

claims  of  immemorial  purity  in  faith  and  doc- 
trine, their  obscure  and  solitary  abodes,  and  their 
remoteness  from  the  scene  of  pontifical  splen- 
dours and  despotism,  we  shall  find  but  little  diflfi- 
culty  in  the  surmise  that  the  valleys  of  Pied- 
mont may  from  primitive,  perhaps  from  apostolic 
times,  have  witnessed  a  more  undefiled  profes- 
sion and  practice  of  the  Gospel,  than  can  easily 
be  found  among  the  more  degenerate  communi- 
ties of  Christian  Europe.  To  myself,  I  confess, 
the  probability  appears  to  be,  not  that  the  Vau- 
dois  shook  oflf  the  superstitions  of  the  Romish 
Church,  but  rather  that  they  had  never  put 
them  on  ;  and  that  when  the  hand  of  power 
was  stretched  forth  to  force  the  spotted  garment 
upon  them,  they  revolted  at  the  oppression,  and 
at  length  recorded  their  protest  against  it,  in  the 
form  of  that  immortal  Lesson,  which  to  this  day 
may  be  regarded  as  their  spiritual  petition  of 
right,"*  Mr.  Le  Bas  adds  in  a  note,  "  I  cannot 
but  agree  with  Mr.  Gilly,  that  '  it  is  much  more 
likely  that  a  race  of  mountaineers,  secluded  from 
the  world,  should  have  preserved  the  purity  and 
simplicity  of  the  primitive  Church,  than  that 
*  *Life  of  Wiclif,'  p.  28—31. 

3 


30  OUR  PROTESTANT 

they  should  suddenly  hecome  Scripture  readers 
and  reformers  in  the  twelfth  century,  after  hav- 
ing been  overwhelmed  in  the  darkness  that  pre- 
vailed in  the  ninth,  tenth,  and  eleventh  centu- 
ries.''* 

There  was  another  community  which  attract- 
ed notice  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries, 
by  confessions  of  faith  greatly  at  variance  with 
those  of  the  Romanists.  These  were  the  Al- 
bigenses,  that  unhappy  people  of  the  south  of 
France,  whose  history  is  written  in  letters  of 
blood,  Avhose  preachers  were  in  England  as 
early  as  1166,  and  who  were  entirely  swept 
away  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  in  a  crusade 
against  them  excited  by  Pope  Innocent  III. 

At  a  conference  at  Montreal  in  the  )^ear 
1206,  the  Albigenses  maintained,  as  AUix  has 
shown, — 

"  I.  That  the  Church  of  Rome  was  not  the 
holy  Church,  nor  the  Spouse  of  Christ,  but  that 
it  was  a  Church  which  had  drunk  m  the  doc- 
trine of  devils. 

"  II.  That  the  mass  was  neither  instituted  by 
Christ  nor  his  Apostles,  but  a  human  invention. 

♦  See  '  Waldensian  Researches,'  p.  113. 


FOREFATHERS.  31 

"III.  That  the  prayers  of  the  hving  are  un- 
profitable for  the  dead. 

"IV.  That  the  purgatory  maintained  in  the 
Church  of  Rome  is  no  better  than  a  human  in- 
vention, to  satisfy  the  avarice  of  the  priests. 

"  V.  That  the  saints  ought  not  to  be  prayed 

vinto. 

"  VI.  That  transubstantiation  is  a  human  in- 
vention and  erroneous  doctrine  ;  and  that  the 
worshipping  of  the  bread  is  manifest  idolatry. 

"That  therefore  it  was  necessary  to  sepa- 
rate from  the  Church  of  Rome,  in  which  the 
contrary  was  said  and  taught,  because  one  can- 
not assist  at  the  mass  without  partaking  of  the 
idolatry  there  practised,  nor  expect  salvation  by 
any  other  means  than  by  Jesus  Christ,  nor 
transfer  to  creatures  the  honour  which  is  due  to 
the  Creator,  nor  say,  concerning  the  bread,  tliat 
it  is  God,  and  worship  it  as  such,  without  incur- 
ring the  pain  of  eternal  damnation,  because 
idolaters  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  For  all  these  things,  which  they  as- 
serted, they  were  hated  and  persecuted  to 
death." 


32  OUR  PROTESTANT 

Section  6. — The  spirit  of  Protestantism  in 
Britain  coeval  with  the  Pope^s  pretended  jurisdic- 
tion here. 

But  many  of  those,  who  allow  that  in  some 
comitries  there  existed  inconsiderable  communi- 
ties, which  from  early  times  declared  against  all 
connexion  with  the  Romish  Church,  do  still  as- 
sert that  Papal  Christianity  was  the  most  an- 
cient form  of  the  Christian  religion  in  England, 
and  that  there  was  no  Protestantism  among  our 
ancestors  before  the  sixteenth  century. 

We  will  go  back  nearly  a  thousand  years,* 
from  the  Romanists'  date  of  the  origin  of  Eng- 
lish Protestantism  to  the  time  when  Augustin 
arrived  in  England  ;  and  the  following  dramatic 
description,  given  by  a  Roman  Catholic  historian, 
of  the  attempt  of  that  missionary  from  Rome  to 
subjugate  the  British  clergy  to  the  control  of  the 

*  "  If  we  consult  an  earlier  period,  we  shall  find  king  Ar- 
thur promoting  his  chaplain  to  the  Archbishopric  of  York. 
Galf.  Monu.  9.  8,  and  British  Synods  nominating  Prelates  for 
IJritish  Sees,  without  the  slightest  reference  to  Rome.  Spel- 
raan.  Concil.  1.  60,  61." 


FOREFATHERS.  .      33 

Pope,  shall  show  whether  there  were  then 
Christican  communities,  independent  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  in  this  island,  or  not. 

"  Gregory  (the  Pope)  had  written  to  Augus- 
tin,  that  he   had  subjected  all   the   bishops  of 
Britain  to  his  authority.     The  missionary,  with 
the  aid  of  Ethelbert,  prevailed  on  the  British 
prelates  to  meet  him  at  a  place  which  has  since 
been  called  Augustin's  Oak,  in  Worcestershire. 
After  a  long  and  unavailing  debate,  the  confer- 
ence was  adjourned  to  another  day.     In  the  in- 
terval the  Britons  consulted  a  neighbouring  her- 
mit, who  advised  them  to  watch  the  behaviour 
of  Augustin  ;    if  he   rose  to  meet  them,  they 
were  to  consider  him  a  man  of  unassuming  dis- 
position, and  to  hsten  to  his  demands  ;  but  if  he 
kept  his  seat,  they  should  condemn  him  of  pride, 
and  reject  his  authority.     With  this  sapient  ad- 
monition, which  left  to  accident  the  decision  of 
the  controversy,  seven  bishops,  with  Dinoth,  ab- 
bot of  Bangor,  repaired  to  the  place  of  confer- 
ence.*    Augustin  happened  to  be  seated,  and 
did  not  rise  at  their  arrival :  both  his  reasons 

*  For  one  of  the  best  accounts  of  this  transaction,  see  Spel- 
man.Concil.  1.  104—110. 
3* 


34  OUR  PROTESTANT 

and  his  authority  were  consequently  despised. 
In  'points  of  doctrine  there  had  been  no  differ- 
ence between  them ;  and  to  facilitate  their  com- 
phance  in  other  matters,  the  archbishop  had  re- 
duced his  demands  to  three  heads; — that  they 
should  observe  the  Catholic  computation  of 
Easter  ;  should  adopt  the  Roman  rite,  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  baptism  ;  and  should  join  with 
the  missionaries  in  preaching  to  the  Saxons. 
Each  of  these  requests,  in  obedience  to  the  ad- 
vice of  the  hermit,  was  pertinaciously  refused."* 
In  an  ancient  manuscript,  preserved  among 
the  Parker  MSS.  of  Corpus  Christi  College, 
Cambridge,  there  is  a  passage  to  this  effect : — 
"  After  the  Saxons  had  become  Christians  by 
means  of  Austin,  in  such  sort  as  Austin  had 
taught  them,  the  Britons  would  not  eat  or  drink 
with  them,  because  they  corrupted  with  super- 
stition, images,  and  idolatry,  the  true  religion  of 
Christ."  The  evidence  of  the  old  chronicler, 
who  wrote  thus,  may  be  thought  to  require 
some  confirmation,  and  we  can  furnish  it,  upon 
the  undoubted  testimony  of  the  venerable  Bede, 
who  also  shows  that  there  was  an  intimate  con- 

*  Lingard's  'History  of  England,'  vol.  i.  p.  112. 


FOREFATHERS.  35 

nexion  between  the  ancient  British,  Irish,  and 
Scottish  Churches,  and  a  common  adherence  to 
observances  differinsr  from  those  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  : — "  We  learnt  through  Bishop  Daga- 
nus,  when  he  came  to  this  island,  and  through 
the  abbot  Columbanus,  when  he  came  to  Gaul, 
that  the  Scots*  (of  Ireland)'  do  not  differ  from 
the  Britons  in  their  observances.  For  Bishop 
Daganus,  when  he  came  to  us,  refused  not  only 
to  eat  with  us  at  the  same  table,  but  in  the  same 
house."  Bede,  Eccl.  Hist.  lib.  2.  c.  4.  Again  : 
— "Even  to  this  day,  the  Britons  are  in  the 
habit  of  expressing  their  contempt  both  for  the 
faith  and  the  religion  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and 
to  hold  no  more  intercourse  with  them  than  with 
the  Pagans,"  lib.  2.  c.  20.  Bede  made  the  first 
of  these  two  statements  on  the  authority  of 
Laurentius,  who  succeeded  Augustin  in  the  see 
of  Canterbury,  and  who  played  off  the  cheat  of 
lacerating  his   own  shoulders,  and  pretending 

*  Bede  farther  shows,  Eccles.  Hist.  hb.  3.  c.  3.  4  and  25,  that 
the  Scottish-clergy  of  lona,  or  Icolmkill,  and  its  numerous  de- 
pendencies in  Scotland,  were  still  independent  of  Rome  100 
years  after  Laurentius  complained  of  the  Non-Conformity  of 
the  British,  Irish,  and  Scottish  Churches. 


36  OUR  PROTESTANT 

that  he  had  been  flogged  by  St.  Peter,  for  show- 
hig  too  little  zeal.  Pretty  good  proof  this,  that 
although  Pope  Gregory  took  upon  himself  to  in- 
vest Augustin  and  his  successors  with  authority 
over  all  the  clergy  and  bishops  of  Britain,  yet 
the  British  Churchmen  would  neither  submit  to 
the  Romish  discipline,  nor  adopt  the  corruptions 
of  image-worship,  saint,  and  relic-AVorsliip,  &c., 
which  the  Italian  pontiff  attempted  to  impose 
upon  them.  The  religion  of  Rome,  therefore, 
was  not  at  that  period  the  universal  religion  of 
our  Christian  ancestors. 

We  will  take  another  period  of  history.  Wil- 
fred, a  Northumbrian  bishop,  was  deposed  by  tbe 
authorities  of  his  native  country  in  the  year  680. 
He  went  to  Rome,  and  implored  the  Pope  to  re- 
instate him.  This  appeal  to  the  Papal  see,  and 
the  Pope's  mandate  for  his  restoration  to  the 
bishopric,  were  treated  with  equal  contempt  by 
the  king  and  clergy  of  Northumberland,  who 
declared  that  they  would  not  permit  the  Roman 
prelate  to  exercise  jurisdiction  over  them.* 

These  protests  were  against  the  authority  of 

+  It  was  many  years  before  Wilfrid  was  restored.  See 
Bede,  EccL  Hist.  5.  20.  and  Spel.  Cone.  1.  162.  203.  206. 


FOREFATHERS,  37 

the  Roman  Church  ;  now  for  an  instance  of 
English  rejection  of  the  doctrines  of  Romanism 
at  a  very  early  period  : — 

In  the  year  787,  the  Council  of  Nice  declared 
most  solemnly  that  image-worship  was  to  be  ob- 
served by  Christians.  The  Church  of  Rome 
approved  of  the  canon.  The  matter  was  sub- 
mitted to  a  synod  of  the  clergy  of  England  five 
years  afterwards,  and  it  was  pronounced  by 
Enghsh  theologians,  that  the  Council  had  "  de- 
termined many  things  inconsistent  with,  and 
contrary  to,  the  true  faith ;  especially  the  wor- 
ship of  images,  a  usage  altogether  execrated  by 
the  Church  of  God."* 

Alcuin  also,  an  Englishman,  who  flourished  at 
that  time,  wrote  an  epistle  to  prove  that  image- 
worship,  and  the  canon  of  the  Council  of  Nice, 
which  sanctioned  it,  were  contrary  to  Scripture. 

We  will  conclude  this  part  of  our  subject  by 
a  quotation  from  Blackstone.  "  The  ancient 
British  Church,  by  whomsoever  planted,  was  a 
stranger  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  his  pretend- 

*  See  Soames's  '  Bampton  Lectures.'  Not.  Binii  ad  2  Nlc. 
Syn.  et  Fran.  Cone,  j  Ma^d.  Cent.  8.  c.  9,  and  Spel.  Cone.  1. 
306—8. 


38  OUR  PROTESTANT 

ed  authority :  but  tlie  Pagan  Saxon  invaders 
having  driven  the  professors  of  Christianity  to 
the  remotest  corners  of  our  island,  their  own 
conversion  was  afterwards  effected  by  Augustin 
the  monk,  and  other  missionaries  from  the  court 
of  Rome.  This  necessarily  introduced  some 
few  of  the  Papal  corruptions,  in  point  of  faith 
and  doctrhie,  but  we  read  of  no  civil  authority 
claimed  by  the  Pope  in  these  kingdoms,  till  the 
end  of  the  Norman  conquest."* 

Section  7. — Britain  under  Romish  thraldom,  and 
Wiclif  the  Protestant  liberator. 

Thus  England  had  witnesses,  at  an  early 
period  of  her  history,  to  testify  against  the  inno- 
vations of  Rome  ;  but  though  she  produced  a 
noble  array  of  divines,  who,  from  time  to  time, 
did  all  they  could  to  resist  the  invaders  of  her 
spiritual  rights,  at  length  she  became  enslaved 
by  Papal  tyranny.  Under  the  Anglo-Saxon 
dynasties  the  island  was  comparatively  indepen- 
dent, and  was  more  in  communion'\  with,  than 

*  Blackstone's  '  Commentaries,'  b.  4 :  c.  8. 
t  See  many  proofs  of  this  in  Spel.  Cone.  vol.  i.  pp.  153.  182. 
194.  203.  237.  293.  317.  320. 


FOREFATHERS.  39 

in  subjection  to,  the  Italian  Pontiff;  but  the  Nor- 
man line  of  monarchs,  after  William  the  Con- 
queror, submitted  to  the  dictation  of  the  Popes, 
and  conceded  one  point  after  another,  until  the 
nation  found  itself  completely  under  the  foot  of 
a  foreign  bishop. 

The  Pope  arrogated  the  right  not  only  of 
crowning  but  of  uncrowning  her  princes  ;  and 
even  now  an  Englishman's  cheek  burns  with 
shame  at  the  recollection  of  Henry  II.  consenting 
to  be  scourged  at  the  command  of  that  alien  ; 
and  of  his  pusillanimous  son,  John,  laying  the 
crown  of  England  at  the  legate's  footstool,  and 
taking  it  back  from  his  hands,  as  the  acknow- 
ledged vassel  and  tributary  of  Rome. 

The  benighted  people  of  that  day,  having  once 
surrendered  their  spiritual  liberties,  were  forced 
to  bend  their  necks  to  the  vilest  and  most 
offensive  species  of  thraldom  which  their  bond- 
masters  of  the  Popedom  could  inflict. 

By  a  sentence  called  an  interdict^  the  whole 
kingdom,  on  an  offence  given  to  the  Pope,  in 
John's  reign,  was  deprived  of  the  public  exercise 
of  religion :  the  churches  were  ordered  to  be  shut, 
and  the  clergy  to  withhold  their  ministrations; 


40  OUR  PROTESTANT 

and  thus  did  the  Holy  Father  consign  her  chil- 
dren to  the  direst  condition  tliatman  can  imagnie, 
— to  a  famine  of  the  Word  of  God.  Inconsis- 
tency worthy  of  Romanism ! 

The  Christian,  according  to  the  Romish 
Church,  cannot  be  saved  without  the  priest  and 
the  forms  of  religion ;  and  he  who  called  himself 
Christ's  Vicar  upon  earth  interdicted  all  priestly 
functions  and  every  religious  rite.  The  doors  of 
the  sanctuary  were  closed  ;  the  sacraments  were 
forbidden ;  children  were  unbaptized,  and  the 
dead  were  deprived  of  their  funeral  obsequies. 
A  nation  which  can  tamely  bear  such  an  exercise 
of  spiritual  prerogative  as  this  will  sink  very  deep 
into  the  slough  of  debasement  before  sh^  makes 
any  struggle  to  extricate  herself.  It  was  150 
years  after  this  interdict,  ere  an  avenger  of  the 
religious  sufferings  of  England  laid  the  first  axe 
to  the  root  of  the  noisome  tree,  which,  over- 
shadowed and  poisoned  the  land.  Wiclif,  who 
was  born  in  1324,  and  died  1384,  was  the  man 
to  whom  we  owe  this  debt  of  gratitude  :  and  the 
following  brief  sketch  of  the  ignorance  which  he 
strove  to  dispel,  and  of  abuses  to  which  he  op- 
posed himself,  will  show  that  if  he,  or  one  like 


FOREFATHERS.  41 

him,  had  not  lifted  up  his  voice  of  denunciation, 
the  very  stones  would  have  cried  out. 

The  Bible  was  literally  a  sealed  book ;  for  there 
was  no  such  thing  as  a  complete  version  of  Scrip- 
tures in  the  English  tongue  until  Wiclif  achieved 
a  translation.*  Even  after  Wiclif  s  own  copy 
was  finished,  the  value  of  a  New  Testament  was 
£2  I65.  6d.,  equal  to  £30  now.  There  were  in- 
deed some  few  translations  and  paraphrases  of 
portions  of  Scripture,  but  these  were  doled  out 
sparingly  and  unwillingly  ;  for  the  very  idea  of 
opening  the  sacred  page  to  the  people,  and  of 
making  it  common  to  the  laity,  was  thought  to 
be  sacrilegious.  "It  is  casting  the  Gospel-pearl 
abroad  to  be  trodden  under  foot  of  swine,"  said 
Knyghton,  a  Romish  historian  of  that  period.  If 
the  book  of  our  holy  faith,  by  which  only  they 
could  be  judged,  was  so  neglected,  no  wonder 
that  the  doctrines,  conversation,  and  conduct  of 
the  clergy  were  unworthy  of  their  profession,  and 
that  priests  "dealt  falsely,"  and  "ate  up  the 
people  as  it  were  bread."     Many  of  the  parochial 

*  The  price  of  a  Bible  in  Latin,  an  unknown  tongue  to  all 
but  the  learned,  was  as  much  as  a  labouring  man's  price  of 
work  for  fifteen  years,  and  equal  to  SOQl.  of  our  money* 

4 


42  OUR  PROTESTANT 

benefices  were  held  by  foreigners;*  French,  Ital- 
ians, and  Spaniards,  nominated  by  the  Pope, 
who  lived  out  of  the  country,  without  performing 
any  sacred  functions,  and  consumed  the  produce 
of  their  livings  at  a  distance  from  their  flock. 
This  non-residence  of  the  clergy  invited  multi- 
tudes of  the   order  of  Mendicants,  or  begging 
friars,  who  proved  as  great  a  plague,  and  as  de- 
vouring as  the  locusts  of  Egypt.     In  the  first  in- 
stance, a  few  Dominicans  Avere  permitted  to  es- 
tablish themselves  in  the  country :  they  professed 
to  be  humble  and  poor,  and  grateful  foi  protec- 
tion; but  their  numbers   and  their  pretensions 
increased,  till  the  kingdom  swarmed  with  them, 
and  ^Toaneel  under  their  extortions  and  their  li- 
centiousiiess.     They  beset  the  chambers  of  the 
weak  and  the  superstitious,  and  the  beds  of  the 
dying ;  and,  persuading  them  that  there  was  no 
salvation  without  their   passports    to  Heaven, 
much  of  the  property  of  the  land  fell  into  the 

*  In  1357,  soiTie  foreign  pluralists  M'ere  holding  as  many  as 
twenty  places  of  preferment.  Great  complaints  had  previously 
been  made  cf  these  harpies.  One  Pope  sent  his  precepts  to 
three  English  bishops  to  provide  for  thirty  Italian  clergy  out  of 
the  first  vacancies.    See  "  Turner's  England,"  viii.  69. 


FOREFATHERS.  4S 

hands  of  these  bare-footed  pretenders  to  poverty, 
by  the  bequests  of  their  dupes,  who  impoverished 
their  famiUes  under  the  hope  of  saving  their  own 
souls.  It  is  said  that  fraternities  of  the  same 
order  are  now  finding  their  way  again  into  Eng- 
land :  if  so,  let  Wiclif's  words  be  remembered — 
''  God  says,  that  evil  teachers  are  the  cause  of 
the  destruction  of  the  people  :  and  friars  are  the 
principal  evil  teachers  :  they  are  the  principal 
cause  of  destroying  the  world." 

In  this  state  of  things,  v/hen  the  whole  land 
was  everrun  with  the  agents  of  Rome,  preaching 
up  the  Pope's  supremacy,  and  bribing  to  submis- 
sion, by  pardons  and  indulgences,  how  great 
must  have  been  the  vigour  of  Wiclif's  mind,  the 
independence  of  his  soul,  to  take  his  stand  in  the 
citadel  of  truth,  to  be  fearless  of  the  frowns  and 
the  contempt  that  awaited  him,  and  regardless 
of  the  clamour  that  would  be  excited  against 
him !  The  Romanists  at  this  very  time  felt 
themselves  to  be  so  strong  in  England,  that  the 
Pope  revived  his  claim  of  sovereignty  over  the 
realm,  and  had  the  impudence  and  the  folly  to 
demand  a  yearly  tribute  of  ten  thousand  marks, 
as  the  acknowledgment  of  our  vassalage.     And 


44  OUR  PROTESTANT 

on  what  ground  did  the  Pope  make  this  de- 
mand 1 — In  virtue  of  an  impost  granted  by  King 
John,  and  to  be  paid  for  ever,  for  tlic  removal  of 
the  interdict  laid  on  his  subjects  !  So  then  the 
nation  could  only  be  absolved  for  money  ! 

Englishmen  !  was  not  Wiclif  justified  in  pro- 
testing against  Popery,  and  in  calling  upon  his 
countrymen  to  break  the  fetters  of  Rome,  when 
an  Italian  priest,  whose  seat  of  power  was  far  dis- 
tant, sued  your  king  for  homage  and  tribute  1 
Half  the  landed  property  was  already  in  the 
hands  of  the  Romish  priesthood:  rapacious  aliens, 
strangers  to  our  manners  and  customs,  who  were 
totally  unable  to  speak  the  language  of  England, 
and  v/ho  never  landed  on  her  coasts,  enjoyed 
many  of  her  dignities  and  benefices,  and  drained 
her  of  her  wealth.  The  Popes  levied  a  tax  on 
Church  income,  which  amounted  to  five  times  as 
much  as  the  king's  revenues  ;  they  exacted  the 
first-fruits  of  all  benefices  ;  they  claimed  the 
goods  of  all  who  died  without  wills ;  and  when 
they  had  thus  made  the  nation  to  crouch  be- 
tween two  burthens — impoverishment  and  dis- 
grace, they  thought  to  rivet  the  chains  more  du- 
rably, and  to  imprint  the  mark  of  the  beast  more 


FOREFATHERS.  45 

indelibly,  by  the  burning  brands  of  homage  and 
tribute. 

What  has  been,  may  be ;  and  the  battle  which 
Wiclif  fought  for  his  native  land  will  have  to  be 
fought  again,  unless  men's  eyes  and  ears  are  open 
in  time  to  the  stealthy  march  of  their  Romish 
assailants.  Wichf  did  not  preach  against  Rome 
till  her  enormities  cried  aloud  ;  until  her  clergy 
were  so  corrupt  and  profligate,  that,  as  Chaucer, 
the  poet  of  that  age,  too  truly  expressed  it, — 

To  put  pennies  in  their  purse, 
They  will  sell  both  Heaven  and  Hell. 

Was  it  not  time  to  cry — "  Come  out  of  her,  my 
people,"  when  the  ministers  of  the  Roman  Church 
ceased  to  preach  the  words  of  eternal  hfe — but 
made  lying  miracles,  and  legendary  histories, 
and  puerile  and  monstrous  fables  of  deliverances 
from  purgatory,  the  subjects  of  their  pulpit  dis- 
courses ;  when  these  were  the  themes  in  which 
they  beguiled  and  led  captive  the  souls  of  men, 
and  banished  the  sound  of  the  Gospel  from  the 
earth] 

There  are  men  professing  this  same  Popish 
faith  that  impoverished  England  afore-time,  and 
4* 


46  OUR  PROTESTANT 

committed  her  best  sons  to  the  flames,  who  are 
now  clamouring  for,  and  prophesying,  the  down- 
fall of  the  Chmxh  of  England  ;  and  they  have 
had  the  cunning  to  win  over  to  their  side  the  in- 
fidel and  half-believer,  and  they  are  trying  to  in- 
duce the  orthodox  dissenters  of  England  to  make 
common  cause  with  them  :  and  an  outcry,  loud 
and  discordant,  is  raised  against  the  Church, 
and  there  is  a  clamour  for  her  destruction ;  and  if 
she  falls,  she  Avill  fall  not  in  her  worst,  but  in  her 
best  days,  when  she  is  trying  to  put  her  house  in 
order, — when  her  ministers,  high  and  low,  are 
more  distinguished  for  good  conduct  and  learning 
and  zeal,  than  at  any  former  period  of  her  his- 
tory. 

But  even  if  her  revenues  be  taken  away,  and 
the  polished  corners  of  her  temple  be  demolished, 
yet  will  she  not  fall !  Her  episcopacy  will  re- 
main ;  her  orders  of  priesthood  and  her  decent 
administrations  will  remain.  Her  liturgy  will 
outlive  the  mandate  for  her  destruction  ;  her  con- 
solations and  her  sacraments  will  survive,  and 
her  voice  will  yet  be  heard  high  above  the  storm: 
— "  The  Lord  hath  chastened  me  sore,  but  he 
hath  not  given  me  over  unto  death." 


FOREFATHERS.  47 

What  a  stir  it  must  have  made,  as  his  biogra- 
pher says,  when  Widif  pubhshed  his  work  "On 
the  Truth  and  Meaning  of  Scripture,"  and  when, 
instead  of  preaching  about  the  good  offices  of  the 
saints,  and  the  influence  and  intercession  of  the 
Virgin,  he  spoke  of  the  one  only  Name  by  which 
men  can  receive  heaUh  and  salvation  ! 

How  the  astonished  congregations  must  have 
listened  with  admiring  earnestness,  when,  in- 
stead of  magnifying  saints  and  anchorites  and 
monks,  and  boasting  of  the  signs  and  wonders 
wrought  by  their  hands,  "he  solemnly  dwelt 
on  the  supreme  majesty  of  Jehovah," — on  the 
freedom  and  sovereignty  of  divine  grace, — on  the 
terms  of  forgiveness  and  salvation, — and  on  the 
wonders  of  atonement !  These  were  his  topics, 
— the  same,  Mr.  Le  Bas  most  truly  observes,  as 
become  a  Protestant  pulpit  at  the  present  day. 

Section  8. — Widif  ^s  translation  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  his  other  writings,  and  the  effects  produced  by 
them. 

But  not  to  preaching  only  did  Wichf  trust  for 
the  instruction  of  the  people ;  and  therefore  it 


48  OUR  PROTESTANT 

was  that  he  translated  the  Bible  into  his  native 
language,  and  multiplied  copies  as  far  as  he 
could,  and  placed  them  in  the  hands  of  Scripture- 
readers,  whom  he  sent  forth  to  read  out  of  the 
Book  of  Lfe,  that  the  men  of  England  might 
hear  them  speak  in  their  own  tongues,  wherein 
they  were  born,  the  wonderful  works  of  God.  It 
was  this  English  version  of  the  Scripture,  which 
made  the  Sacred  Volume  more  known  to  the  laity 
at  large,  than  it  was  before  known  to  the  clergy 
themselves ;  and  thus,  as  Dr.  Lingard,  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  historian,  confesses,  "a  spirit  of 
inquiry  was  generated,  and  the  seeds  were  sown 
of  that  religious  revolution,  which  in  a  little  more 
than  a  century  astonished  and  convulsed  the  na- 
tions of  Europe." 

Here  then,  in  our  own  land,  according  to 
the  acknowledgment  of  one  hostile  to  Protes- 
tants, there  was  Protestantism  before  Luther, 
there  was  a  vindication  of  the  religious  privileges 
of  the  native  against  the  intrusive  exactions  of 
the  alien.  The  prodigious  importance  of  en- 
couraging the  people  to  read  the  Word  of  God 
in  their  own  tongue,  was  soon  felt,  and  it  brought 
down  a  storm  of  persecution  upon  the  reformer's 


FOREFATHERS.  49 

head.  Nothing  has  ever  exasperated  or  alarmed 
the  Romish  priesthood  so  much  as  the  circula- 
tion of  Scripture  in  the  vernacular  language 
without  notes  or  comment. 

As  soon  as  Wiclif  s  Bible  began  to  do  its  work, 
a  bill  was  brought  into  parliament  to  forbid  the  pe- 
rusal of  the  English  Bible  by  the  laity.  But  for 
that  time  it  was  thrown  out ;  and  the  translator's 
defence  of  his  version,  and  vindication  of  the  peo- 
ple's right  to  have  the  free  use  of  Scripture,  is  an 
efifort  of  powerful  reasoning,  which  is  well  worthy 
of  being  recited  in  our  own  days,  when  Popish 
influence  is  again  threatening  Protestant  princi- 
ples and  Bible-reading.  "  To  condemn  it,"  said 
Wicliff,  "is  to  condemn  the  Holy  Ghost,  who 
gave  the  Word  of  God  in  tongues  to  the  Apostles 
of  Christ,  that  they  might  speak  it  in  all  lan- 
guages that  were  ordained  of  God  under  Heaven. 
Scripture  is  the  Faith  of  the  Church  :  therefore, 
as  secular  men  ought  to  know  the  Faith,  so  it  is 
to  be  taught  to  them  in  whatever  language  is 
best  known  to  them.  The  truth  of  the  Faith  is 
clearer  and  more  exact  in  Scripture  than  the 
priests  know  how  to  express  it :  it  is  expedient, 
therefore,  that  the  faithful  should  themselves 


50  OUR  PROTESTANT 

search  out  and  discover  the  sense  of  the  Faith, 
by  having  the  Scriptures  in  a  language  which 
they  know  and  understand.  He  who  hinders 
this,  does  his  endeavour  that  the  people  should 
continue  in  a  damnable  and  unbelievinof  state. 
Prelates,  and  the  Pope,  and  friars,  and  others, 
may  prove  defective:  accordingly  Christ  and  his 
Apostles  converted  the  world  by  making  known 
to  them  the  truths  of  scripture  in  a  language  fa- 
miliar to  the  people;  and  for  this  purpose  the 
Holy  Spirit  gave  them  the  knowledge  of  all 
tongues.  Why  then  should  not  Christ's  disci- 
ples of  the  present  day  take  freely  from  the  same 
loaf,  and  distribute  to  the  people  ?  All  Christians 
must  stand  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ, 
and  be  answerable  to  him  for  all  the  goods, 
wherewith  he  has  entrusted  them.  It  is  there- 
fore necessarv  that  all  the  faithful  should  know 
these  goods,  and  the  use  of  them  ;  for  an  answer 
by  prelate  or  attorney  will  not  then  avail,  but 
every  one  must  answer  in  his  own  person." 

"  TAe  Scripture  alone  is  truth.^^  "  The  Scripture 
alone  is  the  faith  of  the  Church."  This  was  Wic- 
lif  s  argument — "  The  grand  and  solid  maxim," 
says  his  eloquent  biographer,  "  upon  which,  as 


FOREFATHERS.  51 

Upon  the  Eternal  Rock,  he  built  up  the  defence 
of  his  great  undertaking,  and  indeed  the  whole 
fabric  of  his  scheme  of  Reformation.  We  have 
here  the  vigorous  germ  of  Protestantism,  cast  by 
him  with  a  bold  and  vigorous  hand  into  the  ge- 
nerous soil  of  his  country,  there  to  lie  for  a  long 
and  tempestuous  period,  to  all  appearance  dor- 
mant and  powerless  till  the  season  should  arrive 
for  its  starting  into  life." 

After  the  death  of  this  undaunted  reformer,  his 
enemies,  and  the  haters  of  light,  succeeded  in 
obtaining  a  decree  of  convocation  to  this  effect  : 
— that  "  no  one  shall  translate  any  text  of 
Sacred  Scripture,  by  his  own  authority,  into  the 
English  or  any  other  tongue,  in  the  way  of 
book,  treatise,  or  tract ;  and  no  publication  of 
this  sort  composed  in  the  time  of  John  Wichf,  or 
since,  shall  be  read  either  in  part  or  in  whole, 
either  in  public  or  in  private,  under  pain  of  the 
greater  excommunication,  until  such  translation 
shall  be  approved  by  the  diocesan  of  the  place  ; 
every  one  who  shall  act  in  contradiction  to  this 
order  to  be  punished  as  an  abettor  of  heresy  and 
error." 

The  works  which  Wiclif  left  behind  him  bear 


52  OUR  PROTESTANT 

witness  to  his  most  astonishing  dihgence;  among 
others,  it  is  said  that  as  many  as  three  hundred 
of  his  famihar  sermons  still  remain.  In  these 
and  other  treatises,  we  find  that  his  active  and 
enhghtened  mind  was  constantly  engaged  in  ex- 
posing errors,  against  which  we  now  protest,  es- 
pecially the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  auri- 
cular confession,  Papal  indulgences.  Papal  ex- 
communication and  interdicts,  and  Papal  supre- 
macy. Wiclif  died  in  peace  at  his  rectory,  not 
because  his  enemies  were  moderate  and  forbear- 
ing, but  because  they  dared  not  pvirsue  him  into 
the  district  which  his  presence  and  his  virtues 
had  rendered  a  very  sanctuary  and  city  of  refuge. 
He  was  so  venerated  by  his  parishioners  and 
neighbours,  that  when  his  spirit  took  its  flight  to 
the  realms  of  everlasting  rest,  every  memorial  of 
him  was  preserved  with  the  most  devoted  affec- 
tion ;  and  the  stranger  who  visits  Lutterworth 
may  see  the  chair  on  which  he  was  wont  to  sit, 
and  on  which  he  died  ;  the  oak  of  the  pulpit  from 
which  he  preached ;  the  table  on  which  he 
wrote  ;  and  a  relic  of  the  cloak  which  covered  his 
venerable  person. 


FOREFATHERS.  53 

Section  9. — The  Lollards — Lord  Cobham,  and 
the  sufferers  under  the  statute  of  burning  heretics. 

The  death  of  Wiclif,  Avhich  took  place  in 
1384,  checked,  but  did  not  crush,  the  springing- 
plant  of  the  Reformation.  His  codes,  his  opinions, 
and  his  principles,  were  circulated  by  his  follow- 
ers, who  were  called  Lollards  ;  but  why  so  called, 
we  cannot  satisfactorily  explain.  In  spite  of 
every  attempt  to  keep  them  down,  the  Lollard 
Protestants  increased  in  numbers,  and  spread 
from  one  county  to  another.  Most  of  their  te- 
nets were  directed  against  the  doctrines  and  pos- 
sessions of  the  Romish  Church.  They  had  am- 
ple cause  to  declaim  against  doctrines  which  dis- 
honoured God  and  enslaved  men ;  and  against 
possessions  held  in  England,  in  great  part  by 
foreigners,  and  all  under  the  tenure  of  a  foreign- 
er's permission,  at  the  will  of  the  Pope.  The 
Romanists  knew  the  weakness  of  their  cause  too 
well  to  trust  its  defence  to  argument  and  preach- 
ing ;  therefore  they  obtained  an  act  of  parlia- 
ment, in  1399,  under  which  they  were  empowered 
to  burn  the  heretics.  This  act  is  called  the  statute 
5 


54  OUR  PROTESTANT 

de  Heretico  Comhurendo,  i.  e.  for  the  burning  of 
heretics.     What  a  parh anient !     What  a  state  of 
things  !     What  a  picture  of  Popery  !     Here  is 
no  conceahuent !     The   object  of  the  bill  was 
openly  professed — to  hum  heretics  !     The  pream- 
ble of  the  act  runs  in  this  style  : — "  Whereas  di- 
vers unauthorized  preachers  go  about  teaching 
new  doctrines  and  heretical  opinions,  maldng 
conventicles  and  confederacies,  holding  schools, 
writing  books,  misinforming  the  people,  and  daily 
committing  enormities  too  horrible  to  be  heard,'' 
&c.  :  it  then  enacts, — "  Therefore,  if  any  person 
so  convicted  shall  refuse  to  abjure  such  preachings, 
doctrines,   opinions,  schools,  and    informations, 
he  shall  be  burnt  on  a  high  place  before  the  peo- 
ple, that  such  punishment  may  strike  terror  into 
the  minds  of  others."     This  account  of  the  pro- 
ceeding is  copied  from  a  Roman  Catholic's  his- 
tory of  it  (Dr.  Lingard's.)     Observe,  therefore, 
under  the  Roman  Catholic  establishment  in  this 
country,  when  the  Papists  were  in  power,   (that 
establishment  and  that  power  against  which  Pro- 
testants are  so  called  for  protesting,)  men  were 
to  be  burnt  for  teaching  new  doctrines  and  heretical 
opinions,  making  conventicles  and  confederacies. 


FOREFATHERS.  55 

holding  schools,  writing  books,  and  misinforming 
the  people  !  The  Act  of  Parliament  specifies  no 
other  crime  ;  for  the  charge  "  of  daily  committing 
enormities  too  horrible  to  be  /learc/," means  nothing: 
if  any  enormity  had  really  been  committed  by  the 
Lollard  Protestants,  their  adversaries  would  have 
been  too  glad  to  state  it  fully  and  by  name,  to 
justify  the  severity  of  this  Burning  Act.  B  ut  this 
statute  was  not  rigid  enough  ;  therefore  the 
House  of  Commons,  which  was  full  of  Roman 
Catholics  in  that  day,  petitioned  the  King,  that 
"  when  any  man  or  woman  was  taken  and  im- 
prisoned for  Lollardism,  he  might  be  instantly  put 
on  his  answer,  and  have  such  judgment  as  he 
deserved,  for, an  example  to  others  of  such  wicked 
sect,  that  they  might  soon  cease  from  their 
wicked  preachings,  and  keep  themselves  to  the 
Christian  faith. 

Popery  and  Protestantism  now  began  fairly  to 
display  their  opposite  characters  in  England  at 
the  rehgious  trials  and  executions  which  took 
place.  In  1400,  William  Sautre,  rector  of  Lynn, 
in  Norfolk,  after  begging  that  he  might  be  per- 
mitted to  dispute  before  the  Lords  and  Commons 
on  the  subject  of  religion,  was  brought  to  trial, 


56  OUR  PROTESTANT 

and  burnt  on  charges  of  which  tlie  following 
were  the  principal : — "  He  saith  that  he  will  not 
worship  the  cross  on  which  Christ  suffered,  but 
only  Christ  that  suffered  upon  the  cross :"  also, 
"  that  he  would  sooner  worship  a  temporal  king 
than  the  aforesaid  wooden  cross :"  also,  "  that 
every  priest  and  deacon  is  more  bound  to  preach 
the  Word  of  God,  than  to  say  the  canonical 
hours  :"  also,  "  that  after  pronouncing  of  the  sa- 
cramental words  of  the  body  of  Christ,  the  bread 
remaineth  of  the  same  nature  that  it  was  before, 
neither  doth  it  cease  to  be  bread." 

Soon  afterwards,  John  Badby  was  committed 
to  the  flames  for  no  greater  crime  than  this 
avowal : — "  After  the  consecration  the  bread  re- 
maineth the  same  material  bread  which  it  was 
before  ;  nevertheless,  it  is  a  sign  or  sacrament  of 
the  Living  God.  I  believe  the  Omnipotent  God 
in  Trinity  to  be  One.  But  if  every  consecrated 
host  be  the  Lord's  body,  than  there  are  twenty 
thousand  Gods  in  England." 

In  1417,  during  Henry  V.'s  reign,  the  cele- 
brated Sir  John  Oldcastle,  Lord  Cobham,  was 
roasted  alive  at  a  slow  fire,  after  having  been 
condemned  as  a  heretic  ;  or  to  use  the  words  of 


FOREFATHERS.  57 

his  sentence,  which  sets  forth  Popery  and  Protes- 
tantism in  contradistinction,  because  "  we  have 
found  him  not  only  an  evident  heretic  in  his  own 
person,  but  also  a  mighty  maintainer  of  other  he- 
retics, against  the  faith  and  religion  of  the  holy 
and  universal  Church  of  Rome  ;  namely,  about 
the  two  sacraments  of  the  altar  and  of  penance, 
besides  the  Pope's  power  and  pilgrimages."* 

The  offences  of  which  Lord  Cobham  was 
guilty,  were  his  maintenance  of  a  great  number 
of  itinerant  preachers  in  many  parts  of  the  coun- 
try; his  care  in  collecting,  transcribing,  and  cir- 
culating the  works  of  Wiclif  among  the  common 
people,  and  more  especially  his  zeal  in  having 
copies  of  Wiclif 's  Bible  multiplied  at  a  very  great 
expense  to  himself.  In  vindication  of  this  martyr 
from  the  calumnies  of  his  adversaries,  I  will  add 
his  own  account  of  his  religious  opinions  : — 

"  1.  I  believe  that  the  most  worshipful  sacra- 
ment of  the  altar  is  Christ's  body  in  the  form  of 
bread. 

"  2.  That  every  man  who  would  be  saved  must 
forsake  sin,  and  do  penance  for  sins  already  com- 
mitted, with  true  and  very  sincere  contrition. 
*  '  State  Trials,'  vol.  i.  p.  46. 
5* 


58  OUR  PROTESTANT 

"  3.  That  images  might  be  allowable  to  re- 
present and  give  men  lively  ideas  of  the  passion 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the  martyrdom 
and  good  lives  of  the  saints  ;  but  if  any  man  give 
that  worship  to  dead  images  which  is  due  only 
to  God,  or  put  such  hope  and  trust  in  the  help  of 
them  as  he  should  do  in  God,  he  becomes  a 
grievous  idolater. 

"  4.  That  the  matter  of  pilgrimages  may  be 
settled  in  a  few  words  :  a  man  may  spend  all 
his  days  in  pilgrimages,  and  lose  his  soul  at  last; 
but  he  that  knows  the  holy  commandments  of 
God,  and  keepeth  them,  shall  be  saved,  though 
he  never  visit  the  shrines  of  the  saints,  as  men 
now  do  in  their  pilgrimages  to  Canterbury,  Rome, 
and  other  places." 

During  Lord  Cobham's  trial,  a  scene  and  a 
dialogue  took  place,  strongly  characteristic  of  the 
principles  of  the  two  parties. 

Archbishop  Arundel  recommended  Cobham  to 
ask  for  absolution.  "  I  never  yet  trespassed 
against  you,"  he  replied,  "and  therefore  I  do 
not  feel  tlie  want  of  your  absolution."  Then 
kneeling  down,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  confess  myself 
here  unto  thee,  my  Eternal  Living  God,  that  I 


FOREFATHERS.  59 

have  been  a  grievous  sinner.  Good  Lord,  I 
humbly  ask  thee  mercy  :  of  thee  have  I  need  of 
absolution." 

He  was  asked,  "  Do  you  beheve  that  after  the 
words  of  consecration  there  remains  any  material 
bread !" 

"  The  Scriptures,  he  answered,  make  no  men- 
tion of  material  bread.  I  beheve  that  Christ's 
body  remains  in  the  form  of  bread.  In  the  Sa- 
crament there  is  both  Christ's  body  and  bread  : 
the  bread  is  the  thing  that  we  see  with  our  eyes, 
but  the  body  of  Christ  is  hid,  being  seen  only  by 

faith." 

One  of  the  bishops  exclaimed  vehemently,  "  It 
is  foul  heresy  to  call  it  bread !"  Cobham  re- 
plied, "  St.  Paul  the  Apostle  was  as  wise  a  man 
as  you,  and  perhaps  as  good  a  Christian,  and  yet 
he  calls  it  bread." 

Dr.  Walden,  the  prior  to  the  Carmahtes,  now 
lost  all  patience,  and  exclaimed,  "What  rash 
and  desperate    people    are   these    followers   of 

Wiclif!" 

The  witness  which  Lord  Cobham  then  bare 
to  Wicklif 's  virtues,  is  a  most  valuable  testimony 


60  OUR  PROTESTANT 

to  that  great  man's  worth,  and  to  the  effects  of 
his  doctrhies : 

"  Before  God  and  man,  said  Cobham,  "  I  so- 
lemnly here  profess,  that,  till  I  knew  Wiclif, 
whose  judgment  ye  so  highly  disdain,  I  never 
abstained  from  sin ;  but  after  I  became  acquaint- 
ed with  that  virtuous  man  and  his  despised  doc- 
trines, it  hath  been  otherwise  with  me :  so  much 
grace  could  I  never  find  in  all  your  pompous  in- 
structions." 

In  the  beginning  of  Henry  VI.'s  reign,  Wil- 
liam Taylor,  of  Bristol,  gave  evidence  by  his  suf- 
ferings at  the  stake,  that  the  Protestant  leaven 
was  still  working,  and  that  the  Romish  hatred 
of  free  inquiry  on  religious  matters  was  growing 
fiercer  and  more  intolerant.  The  crimes  laid  to 
the  charge  of  this  witness  of  the  truth  were, 
that  he  had  asserted  "  that  prayer  is  to  be  di- 
rected to  God  alone; — that  the  saints  are  not  to 
be  worshipped  or  invoked; — and  that  to  pray  to 
any  created  being  is  to  commit  idolatry."* 

Besides  these,  there  were  simple-minded  men 
of  lower  degree — peasants  and  mechanics,  who, 
when  they  were  plying  the  loom  or  the  plough, 

+  Fox,  i.  p.  605. 


FOREFATHERS.  Q\ 

meditated  deeply  on  the  things  of  God,  and  who 
had  their  eyes  providentially  opened  to  see  the 
absurdity  of  the  legends  that  were  told  them; 
of  the  penances  that  were  imposed  on  them ; 
of  the  false  miracles  that  were  played  off  upon 
them ;  of  the  terrors  of  purgatory  with  which 
they  were  to  be  scared ;  of  the  indulgences 
which  were  offered  to  them  for  money  ;  and  who 
had  their  nerves  braced  to  raise  their  voices 
against  such  monstrous  fables  out  of  the  con- 
suming flames.  We  owe  much  to  these,  as  well 
as  to  the  lordly  Cobham,  and  to  the  learned 
theologians  and  students  who  interpreted  God's 
Word  faithfully,  and  died  in  attestation  of  it ; 
and  we  gratefully  acknowledge  that  stones  were 
brought  to  the  Protestant  fabric,  and  that  the 
foundations  of  the  noble  temple,  which  has 
since  reared  its  head  to  Heaven,  were  laid  in 
part  by  the  hands  of  workmen,  whom  the  pha- 
risaic  Papists  would  call  "  contemptible  rustics 
and  unlearned  laymen." 

The  civil  wars  between  the  adherents  to  the 
houses  of  York  and  Lancaster  put  some  sort  of 
stop  to  religious  inquiry  and  religious  persecution. 


gg  OUR  PROTESTANT 

Section  10.* — Protestantism  gains  strength  be- 
fore Luther,  and  advances  in  spite  of  Henry  VIII. 

When  the  nation  began  to  breathe  after  her 
pohtical  bloodshed,  fire  and  torture  again  pur- 
sued those  who  dared  to  think  and  act  more 
freely  than  the  Romish  priesthood  gave  them 
permission.  At  Coventry,  in  the  year  1519,  six 
men  and  one  woman  were  burnt  for  teaching 
their  children  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed,  and 
the  Ten  Commandments  in  the  vulgar  tongues. 
These  examples  are  enough  to  prove  to  convic- 
tion, that  long  before  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  came 
mightily  upon  Luther,  and  he  arose  like  another 
Sampson  to  break  the  bands  of  Dalilah  and  the 
Philistines;  there  were  intrepid  and  faithful  wit- 
nesses in  other  parts  of  the  world,  and  especially 
in  England,  who  were  depositaries  of  the  Truth 
till  God  was  pleased  to  make  it  triumphant. 
Mr.  Sharon  Turner  has  well  expressed  this  sen- 

*  I  trust  that  this  Section,  together  with  Section  13,  will  ex- 
pose the  falsehood  of  Cobbett's  statement  in  his  "Legacy  to 
Parsons,"  that  the  Church  of  England  is  a  creature  of  tlie 
State  forced  upon  the  people. 


FOREFATHERS.  53 

timent  in  his  '  History  of  England.'  Speaking 
of  Dean  Colet,  he  says: — "We  see  a  full  re- 
formation of  religious  and  moral  truth  accom- 
plished in  his  mind  before  the  name  of  Luther 
had  passed  beyond  his  own  threshold."  Nay, 
Protestantism,  so  far  from  being  a  novelty  before 
Luther,  was  transmitted  to  that  chief  among  ten 
thousand,  through  one  of  the  channels  of  which 
I  have  been  speaking.  It  happened  that,  while 
Wiclif  was  in  the  full  force  of  his  career,  a  party 
of  Bohemian  barons  arrived  in  England,  and 
one  of  them  carried  home  with  him  some  of  the 
writings  of  Wiclif.  These  fell  into  the  hands  of 
John  Huss,  who  at  once  adopted  and  promulga- 
ted the  opinions  of  the  English  Reformer.* 
Huss  afterwards  obtained  more  of  the  books  of 
Wiclif,  and  industriously  circulated  them,  so 
that  when  a  search  was  made  in  Bohemia  to 
destroy  them,  no  less  than  two  hundred  were 
discovered.  Luther,  in  his  turn,  admired  and 
gave  notoriety  to  the  works  of  Huss.  When 
he  was  studying  at  Erfurth,  he  found,  in  the 
library  of  the  convent,  a  book  entitled  '  The 
Sermons  of  John  Huss ;'  and,  according  to  his 

*  ^neas  Silvius,  p.  66. 


64  OUR  PROTESTANT 

own  account,  his  astonishment  at  reading  them 
was  incredible : — "  I  could  not  comprehend," 
said  he,  "for  what  cause  they  burnt  so  great  a 
man,  who  explained  the  Scripture  with  so  much 
gravity  and  dexterity."* 

There  is  more  reason  to  suppose  that  Luther 
trimmed  his  lamp  with  oil  drawn  from  English 
vessels,  than  that  English  Protestants  lighted 
their  candle  in  Germany.  One  of  our  most  re- 
nowned Reformers,  Latimer,  declared,  on  an  oc- 
casion when  his  preaching  excited  much  atten- 
tion, that  he  had  not  then  read  any  of  the  works 
of  Luther.  He  was  asked  by  a  bishop  of  Ely  to 
deliver  a  sermon  against  Luther  :  "  My  Lord," 
replied  Latimer,  "I  am  not  acquainted  with  the 
doctrine  of  Luther,  nor  are  we  permitted  here  to 
read  his  works  ;  and  therefore  it  were  a  vain 
thing  for  me  to  refute  his  doctrine,  not  under- 
standing what  he  hath  written,  nor  what  opin- 
ion he  holdeth.  Sure  I  am  that  I  have  preached 
before  you  this  day  no  man's  doctrine,  but  only 
the  doctrine  of  God  out  of  the  Scriptures  :  and 

*  Luther's  Preface  to  the  Works  of  Huss,  cited  by  Sharon 
Turner,  '  History  of  England,'  vol.  v.  p.  200. 


FOREFATHERS.  65 

if  Luther  be  none  otherwise  than  I  have  done, 
there  needeth  no  confutation  of  his  doctrine."* 

I  will  now,  having  disposed  of  the  question 
"Where  was  Prote&tantism  before  Luther  1" 
add  a  few  words  more  on  the  oft-repeated 
calumny,  that  the  English  Reformation  was 
engendered  in  the  mind  of  King  Henry  VIIL, 
and  that  this  island  never  would  have  protested 
against  Rome  had  it  not  been  for  that  licentious 
and  sanguinary  tyrant,  who,  say  the  Romanists, 
renounced  for  himself  and  his  kingdom  all  con- 
nexion with  Rome,  and  invented  a  new  religion, 
because  the  old  one  was  too  holy  for  him,  and 
because  the  Pope  refused  to  sanction  his  divorce 
of  Catherine,  and  his  marriage  with  Ann  Bo- 
ley  n. 

Henry  VIH.  certainly  legalised  that  which 
was  before  unlawful,  according  to  the  laws  of 
the  kingdom, — namely,  resistance  of  Papal  su- 
premacy ;  but  he  never  embraced  the  Scriptural 
doctrines  of  our  pure  religion,  and  he  persecuted 
those  who  did.  Prostestantism — I  mean  the  re- 
ligious movement — owes  much  to  Luther,  for 
hastening  the  crisis  in  Germany,  but  little  to 

*  Strype'fl  *  Ecclesiastical  Memorials,*  vol*  iii»  p»  370. 

6 


gg  OUR  PROTESTANT 

Henry,  who  retarded  it  in  England.  He  may- 
have  given  some  impulse  to  the  political  engine 
that  forced  Popery  from  its  commanding  posi- 
tion in  this  country,  but  he  did  nothing  to  give 
food  to  the  soul  hungering  after  the  bread  of 
life  ;  he  did  nothing  to  promote  a  more  spiritual 
system  ;  he  struck  down  the  Papal  arm  because 
it  was  raised  against  himself;  but  his  own  ty- 
ranny would  have  proved  quite  as  destructive  to 
the  seeds  of  religious  improvement,  had  he  lived 
long  enough  to  prosecute  all  his  despotic  objects. 
Men  had  begun  to  think  seriously  on  matters  of 
faith  before  his  reign  commenced  :  and  the  pro- 
gress of  free  inquiry  and  of  Scriptural  knowledge 
advanced  in  spite  of  him.  We  have  too  long 
suffered  the  name  of  this  bad  man  to  press  like 
an  incubus  upon  the  bosom  of  our  religion  ;  let 
us  throw  off  the  weight,  and  cast  it  back  to  the 
Romanists,  whose  child  he  was.  Bred  up  in 
their  system,  it  was  their  cardinal,  Wolsey,  as 
his  adviser,  and  with  their  Pope's  hcense,  as  his 
warrant,  that  he  first  harboured  the  notion  of 
seizing  part  of  that  Church  property  which  they 
now  bewail,  and  converting  it  to  his  own  pur- 
poses.    Encouraged  also  by  former  practices  of 


FOREFATHERS.  67 

the  Romish  Church,  and  knowing  that  the 
Popes  had  been  in  the  habit  of  sanctioning  di- 
vorces, and  granting  dispensations  for  the  most 
revolting  marriages,  he  hugged  the  burning  coal 
of  his  hist  to  his  heart,  beheving  that  a  Papal 
bull  would  enable  him  to  keep  it  there.  It  is 
notorious  in  history  that  it  was  not  a  religious 
motive  but  a  political  one,  which  induced  the 
Pope  to  refuse  the  boon  which  Henry  solicited. 
Let  the  Romanists  tlien  take  back  their  Henry 
VIII.,  whose  act  of  the  Six  Articles  stamps  his 
Anti-Protestant  character,  and  thank  him  for 
the  attempts  he  made  to  stifle  our  religion,  when 
it  grew  up  faster  than  he  liked.  Praise  be  to 
Him  that  dwelleth  in  Heaven,  and  who  laughs 
to  scorn  the  kings  of  the  earth  and  the  rulers 
that  take  counsel  against  his  Word,  the  force  of 
truth  was  too  strong  even  for  the  most  powerful 
and  arbitrary  of  our  monarchs,  and  all  his  might 
could  not  suppress  it.  Protestantism  was  by  his 
time  firmly  taking  root  downward,  and  bearing 
fruit  upward.  Its  influence  was  felt  in  the 
Church,  Romish  as  it  then  was ;  in  the  universi- 
ties ;  in  the  castellated  mansions  of  the  great ;  in 
the  houses  of  the  citizens ;  and  in  the  cottages  of 


68  OUR  PROTESTANT 

the  peasantry,  long  before  Henry  cast  his  adulter- 
ous eye  on  Ann  Boleyn,  or  thought  of  quarrelling 
with  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  It  was  Wiclif,  the  rec- 
tor of  Lutterworth,  the  university  professor,  the 
country  clergyman,  and  other  humble  teachers 
like  himself,  who,  by  their  writings,  and  their 
preaching,  and  their  example,  and  not  the  despotic 
King,  with  his  tierce  decrees,  who  dispelled  the 
clouds  of  ignorance,  and  opened  the  way  to  the 
fountains  of  eternal  life.  Henry's  hostility  was 
only  directed  against  a  power  which  thwarted 
his  own :  theirs,  arising  out  of  a  principle  of 
faith,  and  founded  on  Scripture,  was  against  the 
images,  and  the  masses,  and  the  indulgences, 
and  the  false  miracles,  and  the  many  interces- 
sors, robbing  Christ  of  his  glory  of  being  the 
only  One,  and  the  blandishment  of  Popery, 
which  were  all  injurious  to  the  soul's  hope  of 
immortality. 

Theirs  was  the  merit  of  havings  conduced  to  a 
sense  of  personal  responsibility  in  matters  of  reli- 
gion, to  the  rejection  of  all  imaginary  help  from 
the  meritorious  offerings  of  saints,  and  to  a  de- 
pendence on  the  atonement  and  intercession  and 
justification  of  Jesus  Christ  alone,  which  consti- 


FOREFATHERS.  69 

tutes  the  main  difference  between  the  devout 
Romanist  and  the  devout  Protestant.  And  the 
spirit  of  Protestantism,  when  once  evoked,  was 
a  determined  and  a  moving  spirit :  it  was  not  to 
be  put  down  or  to  be  confined.  If  it  was  not 
received  in  one  place,  it  would  go  to  another ; 
and  wherever  it  was  received,  there  it  abided. 
Thus  it  abided  in  the  valleys  of  Piedmont ;  in 
the  Alpine  fastnesses  of  France,  Switzerland, 
and  Italy ;  in  the  forests  of  Bohemia ;  and  in 
the  vales  and  homes  of  Britain.  Henry  VIII. 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  origin,  and  little 
with  the  advance  of  spiritual  Protestantism. 

Section  11. — The  Bible,  in  the  vernacular  tongue, 
becomes  an  engine  of  wonderful  power  in  the  hands 
of  the  Protestants. 

In  this  section  I  must  endeavour  to  show  that 
it  was  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  op- 
portunities offered  to  the  people  of  becoming  ac- 
quainted with  the  Word  of  God  in  their  own 
tongue,  which  brought  Protestantism  to  its  ma- 
turity and  full  strength  in  this  country  as  well 
as  in  others. 

6* 


70  OUR  PROTESTANT 

"  The  new  translation,"  as  Dr.  Lingard  testi- 
fies of  Wiclif's  Bible,  "  became  an  engine  of 
wonderful  power  ;"  and  that  is  why  the  Romish 
clergy  hate  every  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
the  vulgar  tongue,  because  it  is  an  "  engine  of 
wonderful  power."  It  is  one  before  which  the 
Church  of  Rome  never  can  stand :  she  has 
therefore  always  been  averse  from  the  free  use 
of  it ;  and  her  abhorrence  of  it  is  the  reason  why 
we  ought  the  more  closely  to  imitate  the  wisdom 
of  our  Protestant  forefathers,  and  to  ply  it  in 
every  corner  of  the  land.  But  we,  of  the  pre- 
sent day,  are  not  as  earnest  as  they  were  in  em- 
ploying the  only  weapon  against  which  the  ar- 
mour of  Rome  is  not  proof.  Whether  it  is  that 
the  very  facilities  which  we  enjoy  of  working 
this  engine  have  rendered  some  of  us  careless 
and  lukewarm,  or  that  the  wiles  of  our  adversa- 
ries have  persuaded  us  that  it  is  illiberal  and  un- 
fair to  carry  this  warfare  into  their  camp,  cer- 
tain I  am  that  we  are  ceasing  to  fight  them,  as 
we  should,  with  our  strongest  arm.  If,  before 
the  art  of  printing  was  invented,  manuscript 
copies  of  Scripture,  difiicult  to  read,  and  expen- 
sive to  purchase,  were  found  to  be  the  surest 


FOREFATHERS.  71 

liberators  from  religious  tyranny  and  corruption, 
what  an  extraordinary  accession  of  power  might 
now  be  put  forth,  when  the  press  can  multiply 
numbers  of  the  Bible  without  end,  and  render 
the  perusal  of  them  perfectly  easy  !  The  in- 
crease of  Protestants  was  slow  before  printed 
books  were  in  circulation,  but  it  was  rapid  be- 
yond all  calculation  as  soon  as  this  new  accelerat- 
ing force  was  apphed  ;  and  this  accounts  for  the 
sudden  appearance  of  hosts  of  declared  seceders 
from  the  Romish  Church  in  all  parts  of  Europe, 
before  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

We  trace  the  simultaneous  movement  to  the 
same  cause — to  the  circulation  of  printed  copies 
of  Scripture  in  the  vernacular  languages  of  Ger- 
many, France,  and  England.  It  is  a  most  ex- 
traordinary fact,  and  points  to  the  directing  hand 
of  Providence,  that  just  about  the  same  time 
three  new  translations  of  Scripture  appeared 
among  the  principal  nations  of  Europe ;  viz. 
Martin  Luther's  New  Testament  in  German, 
1522;  the  Waldensian  Olivetan's  Bible  in 
French,  1535  ;  and  Miles  Coverdale's  Bible  in 
English,  in  1535.  The  effect  was  almost  mi- 
raculous :    people's  eyes  were  opened    to  the 


72  OUR  PROTESTANT 

truth ;  and  the  Romish  clergy,  knowing"  that 
the  utmost  subtleties  of  human  reasoning  can- 
not be  successful  against  Holy  Writ,  have  ever 
since  done  all  they  could  to  restrict  the  use  of  it. 
They  cannot  in  these  days  openly  denounce  the 
reading  of  Scripture  ;  therefore  they  pretend  to 
call  our  translations  erroneous,  and  on  that 
ground  to  dissuade  from  the  use  of  them.  But 
why  does  not  the  Infallible  Church  give  vernacu- 
lar translations  of  her  own,  and  pronounce  them 
to  be  correct  interpretations  of  God's  revealed 
will  ]  She  affirms  that  she  holds  the  keys  of 
knowledge  and  revelation :  then  why  does  she 
not  unlock  the  clasps  which  she  has  put  on  the 
treasures  of  Scriptural  knowledge,  and  relieve 
herself  of  the  responsibility  of  being  the  deposi- 
tory of  the  Oracles  of  God,  and  of  refusing  to 
speak  from  the  tripod  ? 

In  the  creed  of  Pope  Pius,  which  I  have  be- 
fore cited,  she  makes  her  children  swear  that 
they  will  receive  no  interpretation  but  hers ; 
and  yet  she  withholds  an  interpretation  which 
may  be  equally  accessible  to  all,  and  suffers  her 
priests  to  deal  out  by  piecemeal  whatever  ex- 


FOREFATHERS.  73 

planatioii  they  may  choose  to  put  on  the  written 
Word. 

The  foUowinsr  anecdote  will  illustrate  her  in- 
consistency  and  weakness  on  this  point.  In 
1825,  a  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  (Dr.  Doyle) 
was  examined  before  a  committee  of  the  House 
of  Lords.  He  was  asked,  ''  Have  you  in  any 
instance  allowed  the  circulation  of  the  Bible 
among  the  laity  without  notes]"  Dr.  Doyle 
answered,  "  I  do  not  know  that  we  have."  In 
reply  to  a  previous  question,  Dr.  Doyle  had  said, 
"  The  notes  carry  in  our  edition  of  the  Bible  no 
weight,  for  we  do  not  know  the  writers  of  many 
of  them." 

Section  12. — Crcmnier — The  first  authorised  Eng- 
lish Version  of  the  Bible,  and  the  People's  re- 
ception of  it. 

When  Cranmer  and  the  fathers  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  in  England  saw  that  the  time 
was  come  to  make  new  efforts,  and  to  engage 
the  body  of  the  people  on  their  side,  they  re- 
solved to  make  that  a  national  concern  which 
had  hitherto  been   the  work  of   hidimduals, — 


74  OUR  PROTESTANT 

namely,  the  diffasion  of  Gospel  truths ;  and 
they  agreed  that  an  authorised  English  version 
of  the  Scriptures  should  be  their  first  object. 
But  see  what  difficulties  they  had  to  encounter. 

So  late  as  the  year  1519,  as  I  have  mention- 
ed before,  six  men  and  a  woman  had  been  burnt, 
for  only  teaching  so  small  a  portion  of  Scripture 
as  the  Lord's  prayer  and  ten  commandments  in 
the  vulgar  tongue.  The  King,  Henry  VIII, 
was  so  little  inclined  to  favour  their  views,  that 
he  had  written  a  book  against  Luther,  the  Pro- 
testant champion  in  Germany,  and  had  issued 
proclamations  against  Tyndal's  English  transla- 
tion of  the  New  Testament,  published  in  1526, 
declaring  that  the  possession  of  the  book  after 
thirty  days  would  expose  the  person  convicted 
of  havhig  it  to  the  penalty  of  heresy — the 
flames.* 

All  the  copies  that  could  be  found  of  Tyndal's 
Testament  had  been  burnt  in  Cheapside,  as  if 

*  An  old  man  named  Thomas  Harding,  of  Buckingham- 
shire, was  observed  to  go  into  the  woods,  and  was  seen  there 
reading.  This  gave  rise  to  suspicion  :  his  house  was  searched, 
and  a  New  Testament  was  found  ;  the  man  wgs  burnt  aHvc, 
and  all  who  carried  a  fagot  to  his  stake  had  an  indulgence  of 
forty  days  granted  to  them. 


FOREFATHERS.  75 

the  Romanists  were  determined  to  avow  that 
there  was  a  vast  contrariety  between  their  doc- 
trines and  those  of  Scripture.  But  their  ani- 
mosity did  not  stop  here:  in  1530  a  pubhc  no- 
tice announced  that  the  King  and  his  bishops 
did  not  think  any  Enghsh  version  of  Scripture 
was  wanted.  Patiently,  therefore,  were  the 
friends  of  Scripture-reading  obliged  to  watch 
their  opportunities  before  they  could  openly  put 
their  intention  in  execution.  While  Wolsey 
lived,  tbere  was  no  hope  of  any  public  recogni- 
tion of  the  duty  of  putting  English  translations 
of  the  Bible  into  the  hands  of  the  people.  That 
Cardinal  Archbishop,  who  held  by  Papal  dispen- 
sation the  revenues  of  four  bishoprics*  at  one 
time,  hated  even  the  art  of  printing,  because, 
said  he,  "it  will  bring  down  the  honour  of  the 
priesthood,  by  making  the  people  as  wise  as 
they."  But  the  work  of  preparation  was  going 
on  in  the  hearts  and  in  the  secret  chambers  of 
the  more  faithful  soldiers  of  the  Cross.  Cran- 
mer  was  studiously  qualifying  himself  to  fight 
the  battle  of  truth :  he  kept  large  folio  volumes 

*  Some  shoit  time  ago  it  was  stated  in  Parliament  that  plu- 
ralities were  first  held  by  the  Protestant  cleVjg}^ ! 


76  OUR  PROTESTANT 

for  notes,  in  which  he  marked  down  the  best  of 
the  various  interpretations  and  comments   on 
Scripture,  which  he  had  read  in  the  Fathers  and 
eminent  theologians  of  tlie  Church ;  and  when 
the  season  appointed  for  the  great  crisis  arrived, 
he  was  ready  with  his  arguments  for  the  pubU- 
cation  of  a  revised  translation.    These  he  plead- 
ed with  so  much  force  before  the  Convocation  of 
his  province,  in  December,   1534,  that  it  was 
agreed  to  petition  the  King  to  grant  a  commis- 
sion to  provide  an  amended  translation  of  the 
Bible  in  the  English  tongue,     Henry  comphed, 
and  on  the  4th  of  October,  1535,  Coverdale's 
version   (which  when  revised  was   afterwards 
called  Cranmer's  Bible)  was  published  in  foho, 
to  the  great  joy  of  the  people,  and  to  the  confu- 
sion of  the  Romanists;  one  of  whom,  Bishop 
Stokesly,  was  heard  to  declare,   "  I  wonder  that 
Cranmer  should  thus  abuse  the  people,  in  giving 
them  liberty  to  read  the  Scriptures,  w^hich  does 
nothing  else  but  infect  them  with  heresy." 

There  are  a  few  anecdotes  relating  to  the 
publication  of  this  first  authorised  translation  of 
the  Bible,  which  are  well  worth  recording,  as 
demonstrative  of  the  temper  in  which  our  an- 


TTOREFATHERS.  77 

cestors  received  the  blessing,  and  the  use  they 
made  of  it:  A  command  was  issued  that  every 
Church  should  be  provided  with  one  of  these 
foHo  Bibles.  It  was  done  ;  bat  the  anxiety  of 
the  people,  of  such  as  could,  to  read  the  pre- 
cious volume,  and  of  such  as  could  not,  to  han- 
dle and  turn  over  the  pages  of  that  book,  which 
they  had  been  in  the  habit  of  regarding  as  a 
thing  of  mystery  and  prohibition,  was  so  great, 
that  it  was  found  necessary  to  chain  them  for 
security  to  the  desks.  In  a  country  church  I 
have  seen  the  very  Bible  and  the  very  chain 
preserved  as  relics,  which  three  hundred  years 
ago  attested  the  popular  feeling  on  this  subject. 
But  so  deeply  rooted  were  the  old  prejudices  of 
the  governing  authorities,  that  it  was  four  years 
after  the  Bible  was  placed  in  the  churches,  be- 
fore the  King  could  be  persuaded  to  revoke  the 
decrees  which  forbade  his  subjects  to  have  it  in 
their  private  possession.  At  last  they  were  gra- 
tiously  permitted  by  royal  license  to  purchase  Bi- 
bles for  their  own  reading  at  home.  Then  it 
was  that  every  body  who  could  afford  it  bought 
a  copy  of  the  Scriptures :  such  as  could  not  buy 
the  whole,  purchased  detached  passages.  A 
7 


75  OUR  PROTESTANT 

cart-load  of  hay  was  known  to  be  given  for  a 
few  chapters  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  And  many- 
there  were,  who,  having  learned  to  read  in  their 
old  age,  that  they  n^ight  have  the  pleasure  of 
poring  over  the  written  Word,  and  reading  with 
their  own  eyes  the  wonderful  things  of  God,  ex- 
claimed with  the  prophet,  "  Thy  words  were 
found,  and  I  did  eat  them ;  and  thy  word  was 
unto  me  the  joy  and  the  rejoicing  of  my  heart." 
The  crosses  and  public  places  often  presented 
the  moving  sight  of  men,  women,  and  children, 
crowding  round  a  reader  who  was  rehearsing 
tbe  songs  of  Zion,  and  the  prophecies  of  the 
seers  of  Israel,  or  the  tender  discourses  of  the 
Redeemer  of  mankind. 

One  poor  man,  named  John  Marbeck,  was  so 
desirous  of  making  himself  the  master  of  a  Bi- 
ble, that  he  determined  to  write  one  out,  because 
he  had  not  money  enough  to  buy  one  ;  and 
when  he  had  accomphshed  that  laborious  task, 
he  set  about  the  still  more  trying  toil  of  making 
a  Concordance. 

"  They  would  hide  the  forbidden  treasure  un- 
der the  floors  of  their  houses,'**  says  Mr.  Blunt, 
in  hia  admirable  '  Sketch  of  the  Reformation,' 


FOREFATHERS.  70 

which  every  body  should  read,  "  and  put  their 
Hves  in  peril,  rather  than  forego  the  book  they 
desired ;  they  would  sit  up  all  night,  their  doors 
being  shut  for  fear  of  surprise,  reading  or  hear- 
ing others  read  the  Word  of  God  ;  they  would 
bury  themselves  in  the  woods,  and  there  con- 
verse with  it  in  solitude  ;  they  would  tend  their 
herds  in  the  fields,  and  still  steal  an  hour  for 
drinking  in  the  good  tidings  of  great  joy." 

Such  being  the  avidity  with  which  the  Scrip- 
tures were  cherished,  let  the  reader  imagine  the 
consternation  which  overwhelmed  the  pious  of 
this  country,  when  the  capricious  Henry  rever- 
sed his  former  decrees  in  favour  of  biblical  learn- 
ing, and  threatened  his  people  with  imprison- 
ment, confiscation,  and  fire,  if  any,  below  the 
privileged  classes,  should  presume|to  search  the 
Scriptures.  This  terrible  stretch  of  royal  pre- 
rogative was  confirmed  by  Act  of  Parliament,  in 
1543;  and  it  seemed  like  a  seal  of  human  folly 
and  infatuation,  forced  upon  a  tyrant  king  and 
a  subservient  senate,  to  refute  future  calumnies 
against  Protestantism,  and  to  be  handed  down 
to  posterity  as  proof  most  positive  that  the  Re- 
formation was  carried  on,  not  by  the  cold  me- 


80  OUR  PROTESTANT 

chanism  of  State  politics,  but  by  the  fervent  zeal 
and  undaunted  devotion  of  holy  men,  in  spite  of 
kings  and  parliaments.  Our  Protestant  forefa- 
thers would  have  been  crushed,  and  their  names 
and  their  labours  clean-forgotten,  if  the  will  of  some 
of  their  temporal  and  spiritual  rulers  could  have 
been  accomplished.  The  proclamation  of  1543 
set  forth  that  "  No  books  were  to  be  printed 
about  religion  without  the  King's  consent ;  none 
might  read  the  Scripture  in  any  open  assembly, 
or  expound  it,  but  he  who  was  licensed  by  the 
King  or  his  ordinary.  Ever}^  nobleman  or  gentle- 
man misfht  cause  the  Bible  to  be  read  to  him  in 
or  about  his  house.  Every  merchant  who  was 
a  housekeeper,  might  also  read  it ;  but  no  wo- 
man, no  artificers,  apprentices,  journeymen, 
serving-men  under  the  degree  of  yeoman,  and 
no  husbandman,  nor  labourer,  might  read  it." 

Such  were  the  struggles  of  Protestantism  ! 
Nearly  two  hundred  years  after  Wiclif 's  transla- 
tion first  appeared,  even  after  the  authorized  ver- 
sion was  published  and  freely  circulated,  the 
King,  who  is  falsely  described  by  our  opponents 
as  the  nursing  father  of  our  faith,  strove,  by 
every  means  with  which  absolute  pow^er  invest- 


FOREFATHERS.  81 

ed  him,  to  stifle  the  iafant  religion,  which  he  is 
said  to  have  engendered. 

There  is  a  curious  document  still  in  existence, 
which  shows  what  was  felt  by  the  humble  and 
lowly  Christians  of  that  day,  who  were  thought 
too  degraded  in  intellect  to  be  permitted  to  read 
the  Bible.  It  is  in  the  form  of  a  note  made  by 
a  shepherd  in  the  spare  leaf  of  a  book,  which  he 
bought  after  the  passing  of  the  Act  above  refer- 
red to: — At  Oxford,  in  the  year  1546,  brought 
down  to  Scynbury  by  John  Darly,  price  \4d. 
When  I  kept  Mr.  Letymer's  sheep,  I  bought  this 
book,  w^hen  the  Testament  was  abrogated,  that 
shepherds  might  not  read  it.  I  pray  God  amend 
that  blindness.  Writ  by  Robert  Williams,  keep- 
ing sheep  upon  Scynbury  Hill,  1546." 

In  the  midst  of  the  storms  which  were  raised 
against  Protestants,  at  different  periods  of  Hen- 
ry's reign,  it  is  a  marvel  how  Cranmer,  even 
after  he  was  made  archbishop,  escaped  Henry's 
wrath. 

He  was  in  a  high  place,  and  could  not  be  un- 
observed. He  certainly  owed  his  safety  to  that 
extraordinary  inconsistency  and  fitfulness  of  the 

King,  who  persecuted  Protestants  and  Roman- 

7* 


82  OUR  PROTESTANT 

ists  as  the  humour  seized  him — who  hked  to 
day  what  he  hated  yesterday,  and  whom  a  wit- 
ticism or  a  ready  saying  would  frequently  divert 
from  his  most  violent  purposes.     A  remarkable 
instance  of  this  caprice,  and  a  proof  that  the 
highest  station  was  no  protection  against  King 
Henry's  hatred  of  heresy,  and  jealousy  of  those 
who  were  Protestants  beyond  his  Protestantism, 
is  to  be  found  in  the  well-known  anecdote  of 
Queen  Catharine  Parr,  Henry's  last  wife.     He 
had  determined  to  bring  her  to  trial  for  her 
opinions — for  having  discussed  religious  ques- 
tions too  freely  with  himself.     Articles  of  accu- 
sation were  drawn  up,  and  the  Chancellor  was 
at  the  door  with  the  guard  who  were  to  arrest 
the  Queen — when  happily  she  told  her  husband 
that  she  had  carried  her  disputations  to  an  ex- 
treme point,  to  draw  him  into  discourse  and  to 
excite  his  interest.     "Is  it  sol"  said  the  king, 
"  then  we  are  friends  again ;"  and  the  Chancel- 
lor was  indignantly  driven  from  the  presence, 
with  cuffs  and  kicks  from  the  royal  hand  and 
foot,  for  his  officious  meddling. 


FOREFATHERS.  83 

Section  13. — The  Protestant  Cause  triumphs,  by 
virtue  of  its  own  principles,  rather  than  by  the 
aid  of  the  ruling  powers. 

These  statements  will  satisfy  you  that  Pro- 
testanism,  in  the  right  sense  of  the  word,  had 
but  little  help  from  the  government  of  the  coun- 
try, until  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. ;  and  that 
the  contest  between  it  and.  Romanism  in  every 
other  respect,  except  the  Pope's  supremacy,  was 
carried  on  in  the  face  of  adverse  rulers,  by  the 
pious  few.  The  dissolute  manners  of  the  Ro- 
mish clergy  had  excited  the  disgust  of  the  peo- 
ple: the  fires  which  were  kindled  in  every  quar- 
ter, to  consume  those  who  ventured  to  differ 
from  the  religion  of  the  State,  made  that  reli- 
gion more  and  more  odious  to  them :  the  attempts 
to  deprive  them  of  the  Scriptures  assured  them 
that  Romanism  and  the  Word  of  God  were  at 
variance — else  why  such  pains  to  keep  them  in 
ignorance  of  it  1 — and  the  reading  and  hearing 
Scripture,  as  occasion  offered,  confirmed  them  in 
their  suspicions  that  the  practices  and  the  pre- 
tensions of  the  Church  of  Rome  could  not  bear 


94  OUR  PROTESTANT 

the  test  of  the  Gospel.  Having  learnt  what 
was  right,  the  people  determined  to  practise  it, 
and  without  waiting  for  any  order  from  an  Ec- 
clesiastical Court  or  a  Minister  of  State,  the  pa- 
rochial authorities  began  to  pull  down  the  images 
of  saints  which  were  erected  in  the  churches, 
and  to  efface  the  pictures  painted  on  the  walls, 
substituting  texts  of  Scripture  in  the  place  of 
the  latter.  Henry  VIII.'s  mandate  for  the  re- 
moval of  superstitious  objects  amounted  to  no- 
thing— for  who  dared  to  determine  what  were 
superstitious  1  The  minister  and  churchwardens 
of  a  parish  in  London  led  the  way,  by  clearing 
their  church  of  every  thing  that  was  in  viola- 
tion of  the  Second  Commandment ;  and  Ridley, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  London,  had  the  honour  of 
preaching  a  sermon  which  "  raised  a  great  heat 
over  England."  Hitherto  the  government  of 
Edward  VL  was  silent  and  passive  on  this  sub- 
ject ;  and  even  then,  the  first  injunctions  which 
were  published  only  cautiously  directed  that 
"  such  images  as  the  curates  knew  were  abused 
by  pilgrimages  or  offerings  to  them,  should  be 
taken  down."  The  Protector's  letter  for  the 
entire  removal  of  images  did  not  come  until  it 
was  demanded  by  public  opinion. 


FOREFATHERS.  g5 

Men's  mindsj  enlightened  by  degrees,  could 
no  longer  tolerate  the  impiety  of  such  images — 
for  instance,  as  that  which  was  meant  to  repre- 
sent the  Holy  Trinity.  It  depictured  the  Father 
Eternal  as  an  old  man,  with  a  triple  crown,  and 
rays  about  his  head, — the  Son  as  a  young  man 
with  a  crown  and  rays, — and  the  Holy  Ghost  as 
a  dove  sitting  over  their  heads  :  to  complete  the 
profanation,  the  Virgin  was  placed  between  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  in  conformity  with  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Assmnption. 

Thus  slowly  did  the  State  permit  the  with- 
drawing of  offensive  objects  from  the  eyes  of  the 
religious.  In  like  manner  the  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment, relating  to  the  administration  of  the  Sa- 
crament of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  the  abolition 
of  private  masses,  were  not  passed  until  the 
pulpits  had  long  resounded  with  exposures  of  the 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation. 

The  Communion  Bill  was  not  agreed  to  until 
20th  December,  1547.  It  was  twelve  months 
more  before  the  ritual  and  public  services  were 
weeded  of  their  most  unscriptural  and  fabulous 
deformities ;  and  the  entire  reformation  of  the 
Church  ceremonies  cannot  be  said  to  have  been 


8G  OUR  PROTESTANT 

effected  till  many  years  after  the  complaints  of 
the  devout  and  the  reflecting  had  been  loudly 
uttered  in  the  ears  of  their  rulers.  The  autho- 
rities seemed  still  inclined  to  check  rather  than 
hasten  the  march  of  improvement.  A  procla- 
mation against  those  who  ^Hnnovated  and  per- 
suaded from  the  old  accustomed  rites''^  was  issued 
even  in  King  Edward's  reign :  in  fact,  every 
removal  of  yokes  too  heavy  to  bear  proceeded 
with  equal  slowness  and  deliberation.  The 
clergy  themselves  took  the  liberty  to  marry  before 
the  Acts  of  Parliament,  in  1548  and  1552,  were 
passed  for  their  relief,  and  legalized  their  mar- 
riages. These  things  show  that  the  separation  of 
the  people  of  England  from  the  Church  of  Rome, 
and  the  renouncement  of  her  religious  practices 
and  impositions,  did  not  emanate  with  the  gov- 
ernment either  of  Henry  VIII.,  or  of  his  succes- 
ors  Edward  and  Elizabeth,  but  that  they  origi- 
nated in  the  Protestant  principles  which  kept 
gaining  strength  from  year  to  year,  as  they  were 
more  universally  promulgated  and  better  ex- 
pounded. It  was  a  little  spark  and  a  gradual 
ignition,  and  not  a  sudden  conflagration  raised 
by  another  Nero,  which  lighted  up  among  the 


FOREFATHERS.  87 

people  of  this  realm,  and  consumed  the  fabrics 
of  Rome.  The  old  constructions,  which  it  had 
taken  a  thousand  years  to  build  up,  could  not 
be  demolished  at  once,  and  we  behold  the  hand 
of  God  in  the  retardation  of  this  religious  move- 
ment ;  for  if  our  cause  is  now  weakened  in  the 
eyes  of  the  inconsiderate,  and  we  are  now  taunt- 
ed with  the  reproach  that  it  was  kingly  tyranny 
w^hich  made  Protestants  of  our  forefathers,  what 
w^ould  have  been  the  effect  of  the  argument  had 
there  really  been  the  slightest  truth  in  the  asser- 
tion ?  Thanks  be  to  the  Most  High,  the  con- 
viction came  first,  and  the  law  afterwards.  The 
rejection  of  Romanism  was  not  legalized  till 
thousands  of  books  had  been  written,  printed, 
and  circulated  against  its  delusions;  till  thou- 
sands of  sermons  had  been  heard  and  preached 
against  its  errors,  and  till  the  suffrages  of  men 
were  collected  in  favour  of  a  restitution  of  the 
primitive  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  "  If,"  said  a 
sober-minded  reasoner  on  this  subject,  "amidst 
BO  much  that  is  admirable  in  the  character  and 
conduct  of  the  first  Reformers,  we  might  be 
permitted  to  allot  the  meed  of  praise  to  any  par- 
ticular part,  I  should  have  no  hesitation  in  as- 


88  OUR  PROTESTANT 

signing  it  to  that  singular  moderation  and  dis- 
cernment which  distinguished  the  Reformation 
from  all  other  revolutions,  which  overcoming  the 
common  infirmities  of  our  nature,  by  which  men 
are  apt  to  run  from  one  extreme  into  its  opposite, 
controlled  the  spirit  of  innovation  in  the  mo- 
ment of  reform  ;  rejected  nothing  without  ex- 
amination ;  retained  nothing  without  authority; 
and  when  it  abjured  the  usurpations  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  discarded  only  its  corruptions, 
and  left  all  that  had  the  stamp  of  Christianity 
behind, — like  the  fire  whicii  separates  and  con- 
sumes the  dross,  but  preserves  and  refines  all  that 
is  pure  in  the  ore."* 

The  active  struggle  in  this  country  may  be 
said  to  have  commenced  about  the  year  1360, 
when  Wiclif  first  began  to  lecture  and  to  preach 
against  the  clergy  of  Rome,  and  to  have  achiev- 
ed its  object  the  year  after  Elizabeth's  accession 
— say  1560.  For  two  hundred  years,  therefore, 
our  Protestant  forefathers  were  publicly  contend- 
ing and  suffering,  before  the  kingdom  experienced 
the  full  benefit  of  their  devoted  efforts.  During  the 

*  Taylor's  "  Answer  to    the  Cluestion,  Why  are  you  a 
Churchman  ?" 


FOREFATHERS.  89 

last  fifty  5^ears  of  the  contest,  from  the  heginning' 
of  Henry's  reign  in   1 509,  to  the  termination  of 
Mary's  in  1559,  the  perseverance,  the  learning, 
the  diligence,  the  piety,  and  the  intrepidity  of 
those  faithful  servants  of  God,  were  fully  mani- 
fested in  patience  and  tribulation.     At  one  time 
they  had  to  bear  the  reproaches  of  those  among 
whom  they  lived,  and  the  spoiling  of  their  goods, 
and  bonds  and  imprisonments,  and  cruel  mock- 
ings.     At  another  time  they  wandered  in  deserts 
and  in  mountains,  and  in  dens  and  caves  of  the 
earth  ;  and  oftentimes,  when  they  thought  that 
their  work  was  done,  and  that  they  had  triumph- 
ed over  prejudices  and  false  reasoning,  and  ma- 
lignant opposition,  and  tyrannical  power,  they 
had  to  fight  the  battle  over  again,  and  to  submit 
to  new  trials,  disappointments,  and  sufferings. 
Ah  !  little  do  we  think  at  what  a  sacrifice  of  all 
which  is  dear  to  man,  our  fathers  and  forerunners 
in  the  faith  bought  for  us  the  privileges  which 
we  now  enjoy,  and  enabled  us  freely  to  discuss 
the  sacred  subjects,  which  they  could  not  whis- 
per to  themselves  but  at  the  jeopardy  of  their 
lives.     Take  the    example  of    Cranmer  only, 
whom,  much  as  we  admire,  we  do  not  profess  to 
8 


90  OUR  PRO'lESTANT 

call  perfect  in  his  generation.  Every  bitter 
drug  which  man  can  take,  he  had  to  swallow  : 
he  was  perpetually  in  peril  of  his  life  :  w^hen  he 
stood  before  Henry  VIII. ,  the  sw^ord  hung  by  a 
thread  over  his  head,  even  in  his  momentc  of 
greatest  favour.  He  had  first  to  reason  himself 
out  of  long-cherished  opinions  ;  he  had  then  to 
contest  the  point  with  his  own  order.  He  had 
patiently  to  watch  his  seasons  and  opportunities: 
he  had  to  see  himself  dashed  from  the  pinnacle 
of  his  hopes,  at  the  moment  when  he  thought 
he  had  reached  it.  He  had  to  bear  the  blame 
of  severities  inflicted  on  those  w^hom  he  knew  to 
be  undeserving  of  them,  but  which  he  could  not 
avert.  He  had  to  do  things  from  which  his 
heart  revolted  ;  and  he  expired  in  tortures  at  the 
stake — a  penitent  and  a  martyr,  with  his  mind 
agonized  by  a  sense  of  his  ow^n  defects,  and  his 
body  slowly  burning  in  the  flames, — so  slowly, 
that  he  watched  over,  and  even  exulted  in  the 
consumption  of  that  right  hand  of  his,  which 
had  oflfended  him  by  signing  an  act  of  recanta- 
tion in  an  hour  of  weakness.  Oh,  call  to  re- 
membrance the  former  days,  in  which,  after 
your  Protestant  fathers  were  illuminated,  they 


FOREFATHERS.  01 

endured  a  great  fight  of  afflictionsj  and  pray  that 
you  may  have  strength  and  grace  to  persevere 
in  the  Holy  Faith  which  they  bequeathed  to 
you. 

Section  14.  Anecdotes  illustrative  of  the  charac- 
ter^ doctrines^  and  conduct  of  our  Protestant  lu- 
minaries—  WicUf  Cranmer^  Latimer^  Jewels 
Rowland  Taylor^  Bernard  Gilpin. 

Wlien  Wichf  was  attacked  by  an  alarming 
sickness,  brought  on  by  his  incessant  labour  and 
anxiety  in  defence  of  the  truth,  his  adversaries 
thought  it  a  favourable  opportunity  to  endeavour 
to  wiring  from  his  supposed  weakness  that  which 
they  knew  it  to  be  impossible  to  extort  from  him 
in  his  more  calm  and  collected  hour.  An  em- 
bassy of  the  mendicant  order,  begging  friars, 
was  deputed  to  intrude  themselves  into  his 
chamber,  and  some  of  the  authorities  of  the  day 
lent  their  countenance  and  tiieir  presence  to  the 
same  ungenerous  attempt  to  bully  and  intimidate 
the  man  whose  last  moments  they  hoped  were 
approaching.  They  found  him  stretched  upon 
his  bed,  faint  and  in  anguish.     Thev  surrounded 


93  OUR  PROTESTANT 

his  pallet ;  some  preached,  some  threatened, 
and  all  invoked  him  by  the  powers  of  earth  and 
hell  to  recant  all  that  he  had  said  or  written 
against  them,  inasmuch  as  he  had  but  a  short 
time  to  live.  The  recumbent  saint  heard  them 
in  silence,  until  they  had  uttered  all  that  they 
had  to  say :  he  then  requested  to  be  raised  up 
on  his  pillows,  and,  gathering  up  his  strength, 
he  exclaimed,  with  a  firm  voice,  "  I  shall  not  die 
but  live,  and  again  declare  the  works  of  the 
Lord,  and  protest  against  your  evil  deeds." 

His  words  were  Heaven-inspired,  and  pro- 
phetically true  :  his  health  was  restored,  and 
Wiclif  was  spared  many  years  to  uphold  the 
sacred  cause  of  which  he  was  the  champion, 
and  to  tear  the  mask  from  hypocrisy  and  infi- 
delity. 

While  Cranmer  was  in  prosperity,  he  had 
so  much  of  the  milk  of  human  kindness,  and  of 
Christian  forgiveness  in  his  disposition,  that  it 
was  said  of  him, — "  The  surest  way  to  secure 
the  good  offices  of  the  archbishop  is  to  do  him 
some  notable  displeasure."  His  house  was  the 
asylum,  not  of  the  learned  and  distinguished 
stranger  only,  but  of  many  of  the  poor  and  the 


FOREFATHERS.  93 

distressed.  On  one  occasion  it  was  converted 
into  an  hospital  for  sick  and  wounded  soldiers, 
who  were  returning  home  from  France  through 
Kent.  He  kept  a  surgeon  and  physician  to  at- 
tend them ;  and  when  they  were  well  enough 
to  depart,  he  furnished  them  with  money  for 
their  journey.  At  the  very  summit  of  his  gran- 
deur, his  habits  of  study  were  the  same  as  those 
which  distinguished  him  in  humble  life.  He 
usually  rose  at  five,  and  devoted  the  first  four 
hours  of  the  day  to  his  books,  his  compositions, 
or  his  devotions  ;  the  three  next  were  set  apart 
for  public  business.  He  dined  at  twelve,  return- 
ed to  his  literary  labours  at  five,  and,  with  a 
short  interval  of  recreation,  continued  at  them 
till  his  hour  of  rest  for  the  night.  By  these 
regular  habits,  his  accumulations  of  knowledge 
were  so  great,  that  it  was  difficult  to  propose 
any  question  to  him  out  of  Scripture,  general 
theology,  or  canon  law,  which  he  could  not  an- 
swer ;  and  he  was  always  able  to  support  his 
opinions  by  reference  to  the  best  authorities. 

The   great  extent  of  his  learning,  and  the 
acuteness  of  his  reasoning,  were  made  so  mani- 
fest at  his  trial,  when  he  was  arraigned  before 
8* 


94  OUR  PROTESTANT 

the  tribunal  which  condemned  him,  that  his 
judges  were  constrained  to  silence  him.  "  If 
you  will  adduce  a  proof  of  the  corporeal  pre- 
sence in  the  Eucharist,  out  of  any  one  divine 
who  lived  within  a  thousand  years  of  our  Sa- 
viour's resurrection,"  said  Cranmer,  "  I  will  con- 
sent to  the  Romish  doctrine." — "  We  come  to 
examine  you,  and  not  to  permit  you  to  examine 
us,"  was  the  answer  ;  which  evaded,  but  could 
not  refute  his  argument. 

When  sentence  of  degradation  and  excommu- 
nication was  passed  upon  him,  he  was  delivered 
over  to  the  secular  arm,  with  this  cruel  mockery 
of  mercy  and  justice  : — "  And  w^e  beseech  Her 
Majesty,  with  all  the  affection  possible,  by  the 
love  of  God,  and  by  our  regard  for  piety  and 
mercy,  and  by  the  intervention  of  our  prayers, 
not  to  bring  upon  this  wretched  man  any  peril  of 
dismemberment  or  death." 

Extracts  from  a  Letter ,  written  by  a  Roman  CathO' 
lie,  who  was  a  witness  of  Cranmer^s  Martyrdom. 

"  On  Saturday  last,  being  the  21st  of  March, 
was  his  day  appointed  to  die  ;  and,  because  the 


FOREFATHERS.  95 

morning  was  much  rainy,  the  sermon  appointed 
by  Dr.  Cole,  to  be  made  at  the  stake,  was  made 
in  St.  Mary's  Church  ;  where  was  prepared, 
over  against  the  pulpit,  an  high  place  for  him, 
that  all  the  people  might  see  him.  And,  when 
he  had  ascended  it,  he  kneeled  down  and  prayed, 
weeping  tenderly,  which  moved  a  great  number 
to  tears  that  had  conceived  an  assured  hope  of 
his  conversion  and  repentance.  ***** 

"  When  Dr.  Cole  had  ended  his  sermon,  he 
desired  all  the  people  to  pray  for  him — Mr. 
Cranmer  kneeling  down  with  them,  and  praying 
for  himself.  I  think  there  was  never  such  a 
number  so  earnestly  praying  together ;  for  they 
that  hated  him  before,  now  loved  him  for  his 
conversion,  and  hope  of  continuance.  They 
that  loved  him  before  could  not  so  suddenly  hate 
him,  having  hope  of  his  confession  again  of  his 
fall.  ************ 

"  So  love  and  hope  increased  devotion  on 
every  side.  I  shall  not  need,  for  the  time  of 
sermon,  to  describe  his  behaviour,  his  sorrowful 
countenance,  his  heavy  cheer,  his  face  bedewed 
with  tears  ;  sometimes  casting  them  down  to 
the  earth  for  shame — to  be  brief,  an  image  of 


96  OUR  PROTESTANT 

sorrow  ;  the  dolour  of  his  heart  bursting  out  at 
his  eyes  in  plenty  of  tears  ;  retaining  ever  a 
quiet,  grave  behaviour,  which  increased  the  pity 
in  men's  hearts,  that  they  unfeignedly  loved 
him,  hoping  it  had  been  his  repentance  for  his 
transgression  and  error.  I  shall  not  need,  I  say, 
to  point  it  out  unto  you  ;  you  can  much  better 
imagine  it  yourself. 

"  When  praying  was  done,  he  stood  up,  and, 
having  leave  to  speak,  said,  '  Good  people,  I  had 
intended  indeed  to  desire  you  to  pray  for  me.  * 
And  now  will  I  pray  for  myself,  as  I  could  best 
devise  for  mine  own  comfort,  and  say  the  prayer 
word  for  word,  as  I  have  here  Avritten  down,' — 
And  he  read  it  standing;  and  then  kneeled 
down,  and  said  the  Lord's  Prayer  ;  and  all  the 
people  on  their  knees  devoutly  praying  with 
him. 

"His  prayer  was  thus :  ' O  Father  of  Heaven ; 
O  Son  of  God,  Redeemer  of  the  World ;  O  Holy 
Ghost,  proceeding  from  them  both,  three  Persons 
and  one  God,  have  mercy  upon  me,  most  wretch- 
ed caitiff  and  miserable  simier.  I  who  have 
offended  both  Heaven  and  earth,  and  more 
grievously  than  any  tongue  can  express,  whithei^ 


FOREFATHERS.  97 

then  may  I  go,  or  whither  should  I  fly  for  suc- 
cour ?  To  Heaven  I  may  be  ashamed  to  hft  up 
mme  eyes ;  and  in  earth  I  find  no  refuge. 
What  shall  I  then  do  ?  Shall  I  despair  ?  God 
forbid  !  O  good  God,  thou  art  merciful,  and 
refusest  none  that  come  unto  Thee  for  succour. 

"  '  To  thee  therefore  do  I  run.  To  thee  do  I 
humble  myself,  saying,  O  Lord  God,  my  sins  be 
great,  but  yet  have  mercy  upon  me  for  thy  mercy. 
O  God  the  Son,  thou  wast  not  made  man  :  this 
great  mystery  was  not  wrought  for  few  or  small 
offences,  nor  thou  didst  not  give  thy  Son  unto 
death,  O  God  the  Father,  for  our  little  and  small 
sins  only,  but  for  all  the  greatest  sins  of  the 
world,  so  that  the  sinner  return  unto  thee  with 
a  penitent  heart,  as  I  do  here  at  this  present. 
Wherefore  have  mercy  upon  me,  O  Lord,  whose 
property  is  always  to  have  mercy  :  for  although 
my  sins  be  great,  yet  thy  mercy  is  greater.  I 
crave  nothing,  O  Lord,  for  mine  own  merits, 
but  for  thy  name's  sake,  that  it  may  be  glorified 
thereby,  and  for  thy  dear  Son  Jesus  Christ's 
sake.  And  now  therefore.  Our  Father,  which 
art  in  Heaven,  &c.  &c.'       ****** 

"  Then  rising,  he  said,  '  Every  man  desire th. 


98  OUR  PROTESTANT 

good  people,  at  the  time  of  their  deaths,  to  give 
some  good  exhortation,  that  others  may  remem- 
ber after  their  deaths,  and  be  the  better  thereby. 
So  I  beseech  God  grant  me  grace,  that  I  may 
speak  something  at  this  my  departing,  whereby 
God  may  be  glorified,  and  you  edified.  *  * 
And  now  I  come  to  the  great  thing  that  troubleth 
my  conscience  more  than  any  other  thing  that 
ever  I  said  or  did  in  my  hfe — -and  that  is  the  set- 
ting abroad  of  writings  contrary  to  the  truth 
[alluding  to  his  recantation.]  *  *  *  *  * 
And  forasmuch  as  my  hand  offended  in  writing 
contrary  to  my  heart,  therefore  my  hand  shall 
first  be  punished  ;  for  if  I  may  come  to  the  fire, 
it  shall  be  first  burned.'         *     *     *     *     *     * 

"  Coming  to  the  stake  with  a  cheerful  coun- 
tenance and  willing  mind,  he  put  off  his  gar- 
ments with  haste,  and  stood  upright  in  his  shirt: 
and  a  bachelor  of  divinity,  named  Elye,  of  Bra- 
zen-nose College,  laboured  to  convert  him  to  his 
former  recantation,  with  the  two  Spanish  friars. 

"  And  the  bishop  answered,  (showing  his 
hand,)  'This  is  the  hand  that  wrote  it,  and 
therefore  shall  it  sufifer  first  punishment.' 

"  Fire  being  now  put  to  him,  he  stretched  out 


FOREFATHERS.  99 

his  right  hand,  and  thrust  it  into  the  flame,  and 
held  it  there  a  good  space,  before  the  fire  came 
to  any  other  part  of  his  body  ;  where  his  hand 
was  seen  of  every  man  sensibly  burning,  crying 
with  a  loud  voice,  *This  hand  hath  offended.' 
As  soon  as  the  fire  got  up,  he  was  very  soon 
dead,  never  stirring  or  crying  all  the  while. 

"  His  patience  in  the  torment,  his  coinage  in 
dying,  if  it  had  been  taken  either  for  the  Glory 
of  God,  the  wealth  of  his  country,  or  the  testi- 
mony of  truth,  as  it  was  for  a  pernicious  error 
and  subversion  of  true  religion,  I  could  worthily 
have  commended  the  example,  and  matched  it 
with  the  fame  of  any  father  of  ancient  time  •; 
but,  seeing  that  not  the  death,  but  the  cause 
and  quarrel  thereof,  commendeth  the  sufi^erer,  I 
cannot  but  much  dispraise  his  obstinate  stub- 
bornness and  sturdiness  in  dying,  and  specially  in 
so  evil  a  cause.  Surely  his  death  much  grieved 
every  man  ;  but  not  after  one  sort.  Some  pitied 
to  see  his  body  so  tormented  with  the  fire  raging 
upon  the  silly  carcass,  that  counted  not  of  the 
folly;  others,  that  passed  not  much  of  the  body, 
lamented  to  see  him  spill  his  soul,  wretchedly, 
without  redemption,  to  be  plagued  for  ever.     His 


100  OUR  PROTESTANT 

friends  sorrowed  for  love  ;  his  enemies  for  pity  ; 
strangers  for  a  common  kind  of  humanity,  where- 
by we  are  bound  one  to  another.  Tims  I  have 
enforced  myself,  for  your  sake,  to  discourse  this 
heavy  narration.  Contrary  to  my  mind,  and, 
being  more  than  half  weary,  I  make  a  short  end, 
Avishing  you  a  quieter  hfe,  with  less  honour,  and 
easier  death,  with  your  praise,  the  23d  of  March. 
Yours,  J.  A."* 

Latimer  was  one  of  the  earliest  and  most 
determined  opponents  of  Romanism  during  the 
most  perilous  times  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 
In  his  Sermons  of  the  Card,  as  they  were  called, 
which  he  preached  at  Cambridge,  in  1529,  he 
began  to  declare  his  opinions.  The  preachers 
of  that  day  used  to  select  some  pastime  or  topic 
of  the  season,  on  which  they  would  construct 
their  discourses.  At  Christmas,  Latimer  fixed 
on  cards  as  his  subject;  he  would  take  the  heart, 
he  said,  for  his  trump,  and  teach  his  hearers  to 
serve  God  with  their  heart,  and  not  to  rely  on 
external  and  unfruitful  ceremonies.  After  some 
explanatory  observations,  he  proceeded: — '*Now 
I  trust  you  know  what  your  card  means :  let  ua 

♦  Memorial  of  Cranmer,  Strype,  vol.  i.  b.  iii.  p.  552. 


FOREFATHERS.  IQl 

see  how  we  can  play  with  the  same.  Whenso- 
ever you  go  and  make  your  oblation  to  God,  ask 
of  yourselves  this  question,  Who  art  thou  1  The 
answer,  as  you  know,  is,  I  am  a  Christian  man  ! 
Then  you  must  again  ask  of  yourselves,  what 
Christ  requires  of  a  Christian  man  1  Christ 
will  not  accept  our  oblation  if  it  be  of  another 
man's  substance ;  [in  allusion  to  the  Popish 
doctrine  of  the  meritorious  works,  offerings,  and 
intercession  of  the  saints,]  it  must  be  our  own." 
In  his  sermon  on  the  Plough,  which  was  deliver- 
ed in  London  some  years  afterwards,  he  express- 
ed himself  much  more  boldly  and  plainly. 
''  There  is  one,"  he  exclaimed,  "  who  is  the 
most  diligent  prelate  and  preacher  in  all  Eng- 
land :  it  is  the  devil.  He  is  never  out  of  his 
diocese,  and  never  from  his  cure  :  he  is  ever  in 
his  parish ;  he  keeps  residence  at  all  times ;  he 
is  ever  at  his  plough  ;  and  his  office  is  to  hinder 
religion,  to  set  up  idolatry,  to  teach  all  manner 
of  Popery.  He  is  ready  enough  to  put  forth  his 
plough,  to  devise  as  many  means  as  can  be  to 
deface  and  obscure  God's  glory.  Where  his 
plough  is  going,  away  with  books,  and  up  with 
candles ;  away  with  Bibles,  and  up  with  beads ; 
9 


102  OUR  PROTESTANT 

away  with  the  light  of  the  Gospel,  and  up  with 
the  light  of  candles — yea,  at  noon-day.  Where 
he,  the  devil,  is  resident,  up  with  superstition 
and  idolatry,  censing,  painting  of  images,  ashes, 
holy  water,  and  new  services  of  man's  invent- 
ing ;  as  though  man  could  invent  a  better  way 
to  honour  God  than  God  himself  hath  appoint- 
ed. Away  with  clothing  the  naked,  the  poor, 
and  the  impotent ;  up  with  decking  of  images, 
and  gay  garnishing  of  stocks  and  stones.  Up 
with  man's  traditions;  down  with  God's  tradi- 
tions and  his  most  holy  Word.  And  all  things 
must  be  done  in  Latin  ;  there  must  be  nothing 
but  Latin  :  God's  Word  may  in  nowise  be  trans^ 
lated  into  English." 

When  King  Henry  issued  a  proclamation  for- 
bidding the  use  of  the  Scriptures,  Latimer  shrunk 
not  from  the  path  of  his  duty,  dangerous  as  it 
was,  but  addressed  a  letter  of  remonstrance  to 
the  angry  monarch,  in  which  he  reminded  him 
that  those  who  had  recommended  him  ^'  to  make 
it  treason  for  any  to  have  the  Scripture  in  Eng- 
lish, were  they  who  blinded  his  people  with  their 
customs,  and  their  ceremonies,  and  their  glosses, 
and  punished  them  with  cursings,  excommuni- 


FOREFATHERS.  103 

cations,  and  other  corruptions.  Therefore,  may 
it  please  your  Grace,  to  return  to  the  golden  rule 
of  our  Master  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  which 
is  this,  '  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them.' 
They  that  persecute  are  void,  and  wholly  with- 
out truth ;  not  caring  for  the  clear  light,  which 
is  come  into  the  world,  and  which  shall  show 
forth  every  man's  works  :  and  they  whose  works 
are  naught  dare  not  come  to  this  light,  but  go 
about  to  stop  it  and  hinder  it,  hindering  as 
much  as  they  may  the  Holy  Scripture  from 
being  read  in  our  mother  tongue  :  saj/ing  it 
would  cause  heresy  and  insurrection  ;  and  so 
they  persuade,  at  least  they  would  fain  persuade,, 
your  Grace  to  keep  it  back.  And  as  concerning 
your  last  proclamation,  prohibiting  such  books, 
the  very  chief  counsellers  of  it  were  those  whose 
evil  living  and  choked  hypocrisy  those  books 
disclosed.  And  as  touching  the  men  who  were 
lately  punished  for  these  books,  there  is  no  man 
that  can  lay  any  word  or  deed  against  them, 
that  should  sound  to  the  breaking  any  of  your 
Grace's  laws  ;  this  only  excepted,  if  it  be  yours, 
and  not  rather  theirs.  Wherefore,  gracious  King, 
remember  yourself ;  have  pity  upon  your  soul, 


104  OUR  PROTESTANT 

and  think  that  the  day  is  even  at  hand  when 
you  shall  give  account  of  your  office,  and  of  the 
blood  which  hath  been  shed  with  your  sword." 
This  letter  was  written  in  December,  1530. 

Latimer^ s  Account  of  his  former  Opinions  and  Con- 
version. 

"  I  thought,  in  times  past,  that  the  Pope  could 
have  delivered  from  purgatory,  at  his  pleasure, 
with  a  word  of  his  mouth  :  now  I  abhor  my  su- 
perstitious foolishness.  I  thought  in  times  past 
that  divers  images  of  saints  could  have  holpen 
me  :  now  I  know  that  one  can  help  as  well  as 
another.  It  were  too  long  to  tell  you  what 
blindness  I  have  been  in,  and  how  long  it  were 
ere  I  could  forsake  such  folly,  it  was  so  incorpo- 
rated in  me  :  but  by  continual  prayer,  continual 
study  of  Scripture,  and  oft  communing  with  men 
of  more  right  judgment,  God  hath  delivered  me." 

The  man  who  was  so  honest  in  the  avowal 
of  his  sentiments,  was  ready  to  suffer  for  them. 
He  resigned  his  bishopric  of  Worcester,  after  the 
Act  of  the  Six  Bloody  Articles  were  passed,  in 
1539,  rather  than  hold  preferment  under  a  sys- 


FOREFATHERS.  105 

tern  of  State  religion,  wherein  such  iinscriptural 
and  violent  measures  were  adopted.  When 
Mary  came  to  the  throne,  he  was  a  very  old 
man,  and  living  in  retirement,  but  he  was  soon 
singled  out  for  persecution,  and  committed  to 
prison.  In  his  place  of  confinement,  he  put  the 
following  declarations  to  paper  :  "  In  my  prison 
I  have  read  the  Testament  over  seven  times,  but 
I  could  never  find  in  the  institution  of  the  sa- 
crament either  flesh  or  bones,  or  the  word  tran- 
substantiation.  You  have  changed  the  most 
holy  communion  into  a  wicked  and  horrible 
sacrifice  of  idolatry,  and  you  deny  to  the  lay 
people  the  cup,  which  is  directly  against  God's 
mstitution,  which  saith,  '  Drink  ye  all  of  this  ;' 
and  where  you  should  preach  the  benefit  of 
Christ's  death  to  the  people,  you  speak  to  the 
wall  in  a  foreign  tongue." 

Latimer  perished  in  the  flames  in  the  year 
1555,  with  Ridley,  Bishop  of  London.  At  the 
last,  his  body  seemed  to  acquire  new  strength 
with  his  indomitable  spirit,  and,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  the  spectators,  he  was  seen  to  lift  him- 
self up,  and  to  stand  erect  at  the  stake.  When 
the  fagots  were  blazmg,  he  stretched  forth  his 
9* 


106  OUR  PROTESTANT 

arms  to  the  fire,  and  exclaimed,  in  a  loud  and 
cheerful  voice,  "  Brother  Ridley,  be  of  good 
comfort ;  we  shall  this  day  light  such  a  candle 
in  England;  as,  by  God's  grace,  shall  never  be 
put  out." 

The  immortal  fame  of  Jewel,  Bishop  of  Sa- 
lisbury, does  not  rest,  like  that  of  the  martyrs, 
whose  names  I  have  just  recited,  on  his  dying 
testimony  at  the  stake,  but  on  evidence  by  which 
he  yet  speaketh — his  *  Apology  for  the  Church 
of  England,'  one  of  the  noblest  specimens  of 
theological  reasoning  which  Protestant  ever  put 
forth.  His  renown  is  perpetuated  also  in  the 
record  of  his  controversy  with  Harding.  "  I 
defy  you,"  said  he,  in  that  dispute,  "  to  find  Ro- 
manism in  the  Bible  ;  I  defy  you  to  find  it  in 
the  six  first  centuries  ;  I  defy  you  to  uphold  it 
by  the  authority  of  the  earliest  interpreters  of 
the  Bible  ;  I  defy  you  to  establish  it  by  the  con- 
sent of  those  who,  in  primitive  times,  bore  wit- 
ness to  the  truth." 

Jewel  was  born  in  the  year  1522;  and  while 
he  was  yet  a  stripling  he  gave  such  an  earnest 
of  his  future  character,  that  it  was  predicted  of 
him  by  his  tutor,  "  Surely  St.  Paul's  Cross  will 


FOREFATHERS.  107 

one  day  ring  of  this  boy."  His  early  habits  of 
study  were  so  severe,  that  he  imposed  the  duty 
upon  himself  of  rising  at  four  in  the  morning, 
and  of  poring  over  his  books  for  the  greatest  part 
of  eighteen,  hours  every  day.  Abstemiousness 
and  self-denial,  and  the  most  exemplary  moral 
conduct,  distinguished  his  university  career  at 
Oxford  as  much  as  his  profound  learning,  and 
wrung  from  the  Popish  dean  of  his  college  an 
expression  of  approbation,  highly  complimen- 
tary,— "  I  should  love  thee.  Jewel,  if  thou  wert 
not  a  Zuinglian.  Thou  art  an  heretic  in  thy 
faith,  but  certainly  an  angel  in  thy  life."  This 
proves  that  while  he  was  yet  a  very  young  man, 
he  made  a  public  profession  of  opinions  hostile 
to  the  tenets  of  Romanism.  But,  "  angel  as  he 
was  in  his  life,"  he  fell  in  a  moment  of  weak- 
ness, and  subscribed  to  a  paper  containing  the 
leading  articles  of  the  Church  whose  doctrines 
he  abominated.  He  soon  shook  off  the  tram- 
mels imposed  on  him  by  the  terrors  of  a  cruel 
death,  and  fled  from  his  country  to  escape  both 
the  allurements  and  the  threats  of  the  dominant 
Church  in  England,  when  Queen  Mary  govern- 
ed the  realm.     At  Frankfort  he  publicly  ac- 


108  OUR  PROTESTANT 

knowledged  the  guilt  of  his  apostac}'',  and  de- 
clared from  the  Church  Pulpit,  "-  that  it  was  his 
abject  and  cowardly  mind,  and  faint  heart,  that 
made  his  weak  hand  commit  that  wickedness." 
From  this  time  to  his  death,  Jewel  continued  one 
of  the  most  stedfast  advocates  and  brightest 
ornaments  of  the  Protestant  faith.  "  It  is  an 
easy  thing,"  said  one  of  his  biographers,  "  for 
those  who  were  never  tried,  to  censure  the  frailty 
of  those  that  have  truckled  for  some  time  under 
the  shock  of  a  mighty  temptation.  But  let  such 
remember  St.  Paul's  advice  :  '  Let  him  that 
standeth  take  heed  lest  he  fall.'  This  great 
man's  fall  shall  ever  be  my  lesson ;  and  if  his 
glittering  Jewel  were  thus  clouded  and  foiled, 
God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner." 

When  a  change  of  things  enabled  Jewel  to 
return  home,  he  took  a  lead  in  the  discussions 
and  proceedings  which  finally  placed  the  Re- 
formed Church  of  England  on  the  high  place, 
among  Christian  churches,  which  she  now  occu- 
pies ;  and  it  was  at  St.  Paul's  Cross,  as  the  in- 
structor of  his  youth  foresaw,  that  he  put  forth 
one  of  those  challenges  to  the  Romanists,  which 
established  his  reputation,  and  extended  it  at 


FOREFATHERS.  109 

once  far  beyond  his  own  country.  "If  any 
man,"  said  he  *'  can  prove  either  of  the  following 
articles,  by  any  one  clear  and  plain  sentence, 
either  out  of  the  Scriptures  or  out  of  the  works 
of  the  old  Fathers — or  by  a  Canon  of  any  old 
General  Assembly — or  by  any  example  of  the 
Primitive  Church,  then  I  promise  and  bind  my- 
self to  go  over  to  his  party. 

"  I.  That  there  was  any  private  mass  in  the 
world  at  that  time,  for  the  space  of  six  hundred 
years  after  Christ ; 

"  II.  Or,  that  there  was  any  Communion  min- 
istered unto  the  people  under  one  kind  ; 

*'  III.  Or,  that  the  people  had  their  Common 
Prayers  then  in  a  strange  tongue,  that  they  un- 
derstood not ; 

"  IV.  Or,  that  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  then 
called  an  Universal  Bishop,  or  the  Head  of  the 
Universal  Church; 

"  V.  Or,  that  the  people  were  then  taught  to 
believe  that  Christ's  body  is  really,  substantially, 
carnally,  or  naturally,  in  the  Sacrament ; 

"  VI.  Or,  that  his  Body  is,  or,  may  be,  in  a 
thousand  places,  or  more,  at  one  time  ; 


110  OUR  PROTE STANT 

"  VII.  Or,  that  the  priest  did  then  hold  up  the 
Sacrament  over  his  head  ; 

"  VIII.  Or,  that  the  people  did  then  fall  down 
and  worship  it  with  godly  honour  ; 

"  IX.  Or,  that  images  were  then  set  up  in  the 
churches,  to  the  intent  that  the  people  might 
worship  them  ; 

"X.  Or,  that  the  lay  people  were  then  for- 
bidden to  read  the  VTord  of  God  in  their  own 
tongue." 

A  compilation  of  this  brief  character  cannot 
do  justice  to  a  work  like  "  Jewel's  Apology  for 
the  Church  of  England."  It  must  therefore 
suffice  to  give  an  iaiperfect  outline  of  its  con- 
tents. The  first  section  treats  of  the  persecu- 
tions of  the  Primitive  Christians.  The  second 
recounts  the  false  charges  brought  against  the 
early  Reformers,  tn  the  third  there  is  an  ex- 
position of  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformed  Church. 
The  fourth  section  contains  a  refutation  of  the 
accusations  against  the  Reformers.  The  fifth 
exposes  the  conduct  of  the  enemies  of  the  Re- 
formation. The  sixth  is  a  most  luminous  de- 
velopment of  the  causes  of  the  Reformation. 
The  seventh  proves  that  the  Church  of  Rome  is 


FOREFATHERS.  J 1 J 

not  founded  on  antiquity.  The  eighth  sets  forth 
the  grounds  of  our  separation  from  the  Church 
of  Rome.  The  ninth  and  tenth  discuss  the  su- 
premacy of  kings  and  sovereigns.  The  eleventh 
compares  the  Pope  and  St.  Peter ;  and  the  last 
section  gives  a  summary  view  of  the  preceding 
arguments. 

When  Jewel  became  a  bishop,  his  life  was 
spent  in  almost  incessant  toil  for  the  good  of  his 
diocese  and  of  the  Church  at  large.  He  was 
pronounced  to  be  one  of  the  "  most  notable  and 
painful  prelates  of  his  time."  His  doors  were 
constantly  open  to  the  destitute,  and  he  Avas 
lavish  in  his  attentions  to  the  deserving.  *'T,he 
judicious  Hooker"  was  rescued  from  obscurity  by 
the  discernment  and  bounty  of  bishop  Jewel,  and 
repaid  his  benefactor's  kindness  in  the  days  of 
his  own  eminence,  by  pronouncing  him  to  be 
^Hhe  worthiest  divine  that  Christendom  had 
bred  for  some  hundreds  of  years."  Jewel  died 
in  1571,  worn  out  by  visitations,  preachings,  and 
episcopal  superintendence,  wasted  to  a  skeleton, 
and  grown  prematurely  old  at  forty-nine,  by  a 
consuming  course  of  study  and  anxiety,  which 
began  with  his  dawn  of  reason,  and  ended  only 


112  OUR  PROTESTANT 

with  his  life.  Some  of  his  last  words  were  to 
this  effect: — "My  prayer  to  the  Almighty  is, 
that  he  will  vouchsafe  either  to  convert  or  con- 
found the  Roman  Pontiff — the  author,  sower, 
and  standard  bearer  of  all  the  rebellious  dissen- 
sions and  schisms  in  the  Christian  world,  who, 
wherever  he  has  planted  his  foot,  has  scattered 
abroad  the  seeds  of  contention.  A  crown  of 
righteousness  is  now  laid  up  for  me  !  Christ  is 
my  righteousness.  Father,  thy  will  be  done — 
thy  will,  I  say — not  mine,  for  mine  is  imperfect 
and  depraved  !" 

Rowland  Taylor,  Rector  of  Hadleigh,  in 
Suffolk :  when  this  stout-hearted  martyr  was 
led  through  his  parish  on  his  Avay  to  Aldham 
Common,  where  he  suffered,  the  expressions  of 
public  esteem  and  commiseration  attested  the 
holiness  of  his  life,  and  the  faithfulness  of  his 
ministry.  At  the  foot  of  the  bridge  there  was  a 
poor  man  with  five  small  children ;  when  he 
saw  Dr.  Taylor,  he  and  his  children  fell  down 
on  their  knees,  and  he  held  up  his  hands,  and 
cried  out  with  a  loud  voice — "  O,  dear  father 
and  good  shepherd,  God  help  and  succour  thee, 
as  thou  has  many  a  time  succoured  me  and  my 


FOREFATHERS.  113 

poor  children!"  The  streets  of  Hadleigh  were 
beset  on  both  sides  of  the  way  with  men  and 
women,  who  waited  to  see  him,  and  take  their 
last  farewell.  When  they  saw  him  going  to  his 
painful  death,  many  of  them  exclaimed,  with 
weeping  eyes — "There  goes  om*  good  pastor, 
who  hath  so  affectionately  instructed  us,  and 
cared  for  us.  O  merciful  God,  what  will  his 
scattered  flock  do  without  him  !"  Such  witness 
had  this  servant  of  Christ  of  his  piety  and  de- 
votedness,  while  he  exercised  his  office  of  paro- 
chial minister. 

Bernard  Gilpin,  born  1517.  Of  the  num- 
berless ornaments  of  the  Protestant  faith,  while 
it  was  yet  struggling  for  ascendancy  in  England, 
there  is  not  one  of  whom  we  have  more  reason 
to  be  proud  than  of  Bernard  Gilpin.  He  com- 
bined in  his  venerated  person  every  Christian 
character,  which  we  are  in  the  habit  of  loving 
and  respecting.  He  was  the  dihgent  student, 
the  steady  inquirer  after  truth,  the  ardent  preach- 
er of  the  Gospel,  the  faithful  parish  priest,  the 
unwearied  missionary,  (carrying  the  Word  of 
Life  to  the  remotest  parts  of  the  county  in  which 
he  lived,)  and  the  munificent  patron  of  humble 
10 


114  OUR  PROTESTANT 

merit.  Before  he  declared  himself  an  advocate 
of  the  sound  principles  of  Protestantism,  he  not 
only  read  diligently  and  weighed  well  the  argu- 
ments for  and  against  Romanism,  but  he  sought 
out  the  company  of  the  best  reasoners  on  each 
side  of  the  question,  and  even  travelled  into 
foreign  countries  that  he  might  consult  the 
ablest  divines  on  the  Continent.  It  was  not  till 
after  much  prayer,  much  deliberation,  and  the 
deepest  conviction,  that  he  took  upon  himself 
the  office  of  a  Protestant  minister;  and  from 
that  time  till  the  hour  of  his  death,  his  whole 
life  was  one  continued  offering  of  body,  mind, 
heart,  soul,  and  strength,  to  God  his  Maker,  and 
to  Christ  his  Redeemer.  He  might  have  held 
the  highest  dignities  of  the  Church,  but  he 
refused  them;  and  thus  he  testified  against 
worldly  ambition.  He  expended  all  the  produce 
of  his  living,  the  Rectory  of  Houghton-le-Spring, 
on  works  of  charity  and  hospitality ;  and  thus 
he  acquired  a  name  for  disinterested  goodness, 
which  his  most  bitter  religious  adversaries  could 
not  refuse  him.  He  was  so  scrupulously  con- 
scientious, that  nothing  could  induce  him  to  act 
against  his  own  views  of  right  and  wrong.     Up- 


FOREFATHERS.  115 

on  an  occasion  in  early  life,  when  he  thought  he 
could  not  properly  perform  the  duties  of  a  vicar- 
age conferred  on  him,  he  resigned  it.  He  was 
told  he  might  absent  himself,  and  hold  it  by  the 
bishop's  dispensation.  "  Dispensation  !"  said 
he  ;  "  will  any  dispensation  restrain  the  tempter 
from  endeavouring  in  my  absence  to  corrupt  the 
people  committed  to  my  care  ?  I  fear  it  would 
be  but  an  ill  excuse  for  the  harm  done  to  my 
flock,  if  I  should  say,  when  God  shall  call  me  to 
account  for  my  stewardship,  that  I  was  absent 
by  dispensation." 

Gilpin's  own  history  of  his  conversion  will 
prove  the  best  account  that  can  be  given  of  his 
devout  frame  of  mind  and  ardent  love  of  truth. — 
"You  require  me  to  write  in  a  long  discourse  the 
manner  of  my  conversion  from  superstition  to 
the  light  of  the  Gospel,  which  I  think  you  know 
was  not  in  a  few  years.  As  time  and  health 
will  permit,  I  shall  hide  nothing  from  you,  con- 
fessing my  own  shame,  and  yet  hoping  with  the 
Apostle — '  I  have  obtained  mercy,  because  I  did 
it  ignorantly.'  Many  things  gave  me  occasion 
to  search  both  the  Scriptures  and  ancient  Fa- 
thers ;    whereby   I   began  to  see  many   great 


1 16  OUR  PROTESTANT 

abuses,  and  some  enormities  used  and  maintain- 
ed in  Popery  ;  and  to  like  well  of  sundry  refor- 
mations on  the  other  side. 

**  Afterwards,  in  three  years'  space,  I  saw  so 
much  gross  idolatry  at  Paris,  Antwerp,  and  other 
places,  that  made  me  to  mislike  more  and  more 
the  Popish  doctrines,  especially  because  the  learn- 
ed men  disallowed  image-worship  in  their  schools, 
and  suffered  it  so  grossly  in  their  churches. 

"  I  reasoned  with  certain  that  were  learned  of 
my  acquaintance,  why  there  was  no  reformation 
of  these  gross  enormities,  about  images,  reHcs, 
pilgrimages,  buying  mass  and  trentals,  with 
many  other  things,  which,  in  King  Edward's 
time,  the  Catholics  (so  called)  did  not  only  grant 
to  be  far  amiss,  but,  also  promised  that  the 
Church  should  be  reformed,  if  ever  the  authority 
came  into  their  hands  again.  When  I  asked 
when  this  reformation  was  to  begin,  in  hope 
whereof  I  was  the  more  willing  to  return  from 
Paris,  I  was  answered, — *  We  may  not  grant  to 
the  ignorant  people  that  any  of  these  things 
hath  been  amiss :  if  w^e  do,  they  will  straight 
infer  other  things  may  be  amiss  as  well  as  these, 
and  still  go  further  and  further.'     This  grieved 


FOREFATHERS.  \\J 

me,  and  made  me  geek  for  quietness  in  God's 
Word  :  nowhere  else  I  could  find  any  stay. 

"Thus  in  process  of  time  I  grew  to  be  stronger 
and  stronger ;  yet  many  grievous  temptations 
and  doubts  have  I  had,  whicli  many  nights  have 
bereaved  me  of  sleep. 

"  My  nature  hath  evermore  fled  controversy 
so  much  as  I  could.  My  delight  and  desire 
hath  been  to  preach  Christ,  and  our  salvation 
by  him,  in  simplicity  and  truth  ;  and  to  comfort 
myself  with  the  sweet  promises  of  the  Gospel, 
and  in  prayer. 

'*  I  have  been  ahvays  scrupulous  and  troubled, 
either  in  subscribing  or  swearing  to  any  thing 
besides  the  Scriptures  and  articles  of  our  belief, 
because  the  Scriptures  ought  ever  to  have  a  pre- 
eminence above  man's  writings. 

"  And  certainly,  since  I  took  this  order  to  open 
my  faults  in  writing,  not  pausing  who  knew 
them,  so  it  might  edify  mj^self  or  others,  I  have 
found  great  ease  and  quietness  of  conscience : 
and  am  daily  more  edified,  comforted  and  con- 
firmed, in  reading  the  Scriptures.  And  this  I 
praise  God  for,  that  when  I  was  most  troubled, 
and  weakest  of  all,  my  faith  in  God's  mercy  was 


1 1 8  OUR  PROTESTANT 

80  strong,  that  if  I  should  then  have  departed 
this  life,  I  had,  and  have,  a  sure  trust,  that  none 
of  these  doubts  would  have  hindered  my  salva- 
tion. I  hold  fast  one  sentence  of  St.  Paul, — 
'  I  have  obtained  mercy,  in  that  I  did  it  in  igno- 
rance ;'  and  another  of  Job, — '  If  the  Lord  put 
me  to  death,  yet  will  I  trust  in  him.'  Yet  have 
I  prayed  God's  mercy  many  times  for  all  these 
offences,  infirmities,  and  ignorances ;  and  so  I 
will  do  so  still,  so  long  as  I  have  to  live  in  the 
world." 

These  anecdotes  will  show  that  our  Protestant 
forefathers  were  supported  in  their  own  minds 
and  conduct,  and  that  they  promoted  the  cause 
of  the  Reformation,  by  their  faithful  adherence 
to  the  peculiar  and  distinguishing  truths  of  the 
Gospel.  They  confessed  and  preached  Christ 
in  the  divinity  of  his  person,  in  the  ejSicacy  of 
his  atonement,  in  the  fulness  and  freeness  of  his 
grace,  and  in  the  supreme  virtue  of  his  interces- 
sion. By  the  force  of  these  doctrines,  and  by  the 
example  of  their  holy  lives,  they  cast  down  the 
strong  holds  of  superstition,  and  they  re-erected 
in  their  place  that  temple  for  the  performance  of 


FOREFATHERS.  |19 

"  a  reasonable  service,"  which  never  can  again 
be  destroyed,  as  long  as  the  Bible  continues 
to  be  read  in  the  vernacular  language  of  Eng- 
land. 


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^^^^^^^^K      Our  Protestant  forefathers 

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1   1012  00070  0270 


